Avengers For Hire
by Danny vs A Month
Summary: They're not perfect, and they're very far from good people, but as long as they're being payed, they'll do their job well. OCxOC, Romanogers, TonyXPepper.
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

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First Assignment

Sirens wailed as police and SWAT both responded to not one but two separate reports of an attack. One was reported as a machine gunner in a skyscraper lighting up a street. Another was reported as unknown projectiles killing people. As SWAT swung onto a road heading for the machine gunner's tower, bullets began to rip out of one of the windows, slamming into them in a continuous rain of deadly projectiles, not stopping until two of the SWAT troop transports bulletproof windows had shattered and the drivers died while the other six pulled off onto side streets.

At the other end of the city, Police and SWAT swarmed into an office building where a CEO, his chosen successor, and their secretary had been supposedly sniped. However, there'd been no gunshot, and no one had even known until someone walked in to ask the CEO a question. However, as soon s all of the troops were inside, a shining white arrow made of compressed energy, one with a shaft about an inch across and a tip about three inches across, sped down toward the cops. One of them looked, seeing a figure in dark clothes, a hood up, and too far away to make out their face, holding a similarly shining white bow. As he registered the arrow speeding toward them, noticing it out of pure luck with the bright daylight outside the window helping hide it, he only had time to shout for the briefest of moments before the arrow punched through the window, then hit in the center of the room and erupted into a blinding white explosion, demolishing the corner office. Bits of police and SWAT officers fell to the streets below the building, causing a panic, as did the building making up the floor of the office, and the ceiling of the roof just below it, breaking free from the explosion and also plummeting to the ground.

The archer smirked, pulling his neck gaiter up and turning sprinting to the edge of the building and dropping the ten feet onto the lower section of the roof. He walked calmly to the door leading into the stairs, but as he opened it and looked down the stairwell, he saw troops sprinting up them. One leaned out and looked up, a man with his hair in a military-style fade and gelled to make it stand up on top, a handsome, if rough, face, and a tight, sleeveless black shirt and pants, only to instantly jerk his head back as a white arrow sped past, hitting in the bottom of the stairwell and exploding, the stairs trembling. The archer walked back out onto the roof just as the stairs collapsed, crushing anyone who hadn't gotten off of them fast enough.

He smirked, walking to the edge of the building and looking around. The closest building was a skyscraper about five hundred meters away. He hummed thoughtfully just as he heard someone drop to the roof behind him. He turned, seeing the same guy as had looked up at him standing there, holding a bow of his own, a recurve, arrow aimed at his chest.

"Agent Clinton Francis Barton, A.K.A. Hawkeye," the archer identified the man. "I figured you'd survive the collapsing stairs. Anyone else make it?"

"I'm not sure," Barton said. "But I'm going to make you pay anyway."

"Will you?" the archer asked, smirking behind his neck gaiter. "Tell me, how's Natasha Romanoff recently? Or does she prefer Natalia Alianovna Romanoff?"

"How do you know that name?" Barton demanded. "Who are you?"

"You'll never know," the archer smirked before tipping backward and falling.

Barton shouted in surprise, sprinting after him and looking down just as the archer winked and saluted lazily, a second before a window beside him exploded, the fireball engulfing him for a moment before clearing, leaving the archer nowhere to be seen. Barton swore, then headed back into the building through the higher roof, moving to help evacuate the building.

As Barton was after the archer, Natasha Romanoff was sprinting up the stairway of the machine gunner's building, taking them three at a time. Finally, she kicked the door open, entering an emptied out office area where support pillars ran through the room, and the windows had been broken every so often. Bullet casings littered the ground, along with ammo belt links, all of the bullets 7.62 millimeter bullets, though the machine gun was also nowhere to be found.

Natasha held her two Glocks ready and moved to step around the square of plaster and cement the stairs occupied, being the only thing taking up any floor space on that level of the building, and turned the corner, spotting her target instantly and opening fire. Her target had a black sweatshirt, with a second collar inside to cover the lower half of her face, had black pants, and had black shoes. As soon as Natasha opened fire, the girl was moving, sprinting to the side and pulling an FN 5.7 from her sweatshirt and beginning to fire at Natasha rapidly. Natasha swore, taking off as well, making herself a hard target. Her guns, together, held fourteen rounds. The shooter's held twenty rounds, plus one in the chamber.

The shooter was fast and agile, sprinting constantly, changing directions, and soon began to close the distance. Natasha kept a careful count of the shooter's shots, even as her own pistols ran dry. However, Natasha's last couple of shots were misses because the shooter sprinted up the side of the stairwell's wall, then flipped backward, landing safely as Natasha dropped her pistols, moving to get in too close to be shot.

The shooter drover the muzzle of her pistol at Natasha's face, and Natasha leaned out of the way, the gun firing. Fifteen. Natasha threw several punches at the shooter, who blocked them expertly, trading several strikes as well before sweeping a punch to the side with her gun hand, then twisting her own arm to aim at Natasha. Natasha spun out of the way, barely avoiding another shot. Sixteen. The shooter jumped and swung a roundhouse kick at Natasha, who ducked under it, sweeping the shooter's support leg as soon as she landed. She dropped to her hands and feet and shoved off the ground, leaping a foot into the air, over Natasha's other leg as it kicked at her face. As she landed, she pulled her feet up under her and kicked at Natasha, who caught her feet and fell backward. The shooter kicked Natasha under the chin and flipped backward to her feet. Natasha lunged, grabbing her gun arm and shoving upward just as three shots went off. Nineteen. The shooter slammed her forehead into Natasha's then push kicked her. Natasha flipped to her feet and dove to the side as two shot hit the floor, skipping off of the tile and shattering the window behind Natasha.

Natasha sprinted forward and began to trade blows with the shooter, who continued to use the pistol as a blunt weapon. They traded punches, kicks, elbows, knees, always blocking the strikes until Natasha finally found an opening. She caught the shooter's gun arm as she jabbed at her, then twisted, grabbing her tricep with her free hand and hurled the shooter over her shoulder.

"You're at a disadvantage, you know," Natasha said. "You're a good fighter, but you're not beating me in hand-to-hand combat. And you've used up all twenty one shots."

"Have I?" the shooter asked, then spun, raising the pistol.

Natasha instinctively hurled herself to the side just as four shots rang out. Two missed, one punched through Natasha's right side, and one through her right thigh. Natasha swore loudly, scrambling back behind the wall and holding a hand to her side. She shouldn't have more bullets. Natasha had been careful. She had counted the shots. She couldn't have miscounted that badly, could she?

Just then, the door, which the shooter had ended up in front of swung open, SHIELD agents in full gear storming out of it, only to die in a hail of FN 5.7 fire. Natasha's eyes widened as she continued to count the shots. Twenty eight. Thirty. Thirty five. Thirty nine. She pushed herself up and looked into the stairwell just as the shooter shot a grappling hook from her belt buckle into the center of the stairwell's ceiling, slipping her pistol into her sweatshirt's pocket, then reached under it and pulled out a pair of modified Walter P99s with extended mags, before leaping into the center of the stairwell, flipping upside down and spinning, squeezing the triggers. Both pistols roared to life, spraying bullets into the SHIELD troops lining the stairs as she spun and descended, slaughtering them.

Natasha stared in shock as the shooter continued to fire for almost ten seconds without letting up at all before stopping. A moment later, the cable jerked slightly before beginning to sway as the shooter detached from it and left. Natasha did some mental math. Over two hundred rounds without reloading, give or take. That wasn't possible. She dropped against the wall, grimacing before radioing for a medical team for the entire force that had gone after the shooter.

* * *

"They _both_ escaped you?" Fury asked.

"To be fair, mine was highly trained in hand-to-hand combat, and also had the ability to fire bullets from her guns endlessly," Natasha said. "She fired thirty nine shots from an FN 5.7 without reloading, then sprayed about two hundred out of a pair of P99s that she modded for full auto while spinning down a stairwell, upside down without letting up her fire to reload. I think it's fair that I wasn't able to catch her."

"And yours?" Fury asked Barton.

"Mine was able to make a bow and arrow out of energy," Barton said. "He shot an arrow into the base of the stairwell and the explosion collapsed the whole thing. I managed to get onto the roof of the next building over in time to find him, but he stalled by proving he knew all about me and Nat, calling both of us by our full names, including her Russian one, then jumped off the building, got caught in an explosion, and then was gone a second later when the flames and smoke had cleared. Whoever these two are, they're good."

"They're dangerous," Fury said. "How many people did each of them kill? A couple dozen for one, and a hundred for the other? Maybe two hundred?"

"At least we know one thing," Natasha said. "Whoever they are, they clearly work together. They forced us to split our forces to keep me and Agent Barton from working together against either of them. They're obviously teammates."

* * *

"You just can't help yourself, can you!?" the archer demanded, shoving the shooter. "You just can't help but draw attention to yourself!"

"Me!?" the shooter scoffed. "_You're_ the one who dropped part of a building into the street!"

"You were shooting up two entire streets with a goddamn machine gun!" the archer snapped. "You drew in all the cops in the entire city! If you hadn't drawn so much attention, I could have killed my target and walked away! But nooo, you had to go and draw out every fucking pig alive and go on a hog hunt!"

"Oh please!" the shooter snorted. "You weren't going to do just your target! You killed those three people in the office to draw in cops as well, then blew up the office just to drop the piece of building on your target! I'll give you points for disguising your assassination as a freak accident, and making them think you were targeting someone in the office, while making your actual target look like collateral damage, but you can't blame the cops showing up on me!"

The archer sighed. "You might have a point. Still though, I'd have to say you disguised yours better than me. You killed damn-near two hundred people to disguise your assassination."

"At least you admit I'm better than you," the shooter said.

"Excuse me?" he growled. "Better? I don't fucking think so. You're only good at your job when you can spray a machine gun for twenty minutes. You don't have the finesse to be a _real_ assassin."

"Oh and you do?" she snarled, yanking a pair of knives from the back of her belt. "Let's test that shall we?"

She lunged, slashing at him rapidly, both knives held in reverse grip, and he huffed, forming a pair of knives of his own from white energy. He knives were thin, short, black ones with grips contoured specifically for her hands, and with five inch, double-edged blades and ring pommels. His knives were a pair of blades and a grip, both blades being short, basically shaped ones, but they were as solid as a normal blade, so he was able to use them to block and deflect her blades with them, though he generally stuck to using his forearms to block hers, that way he didn't need to worry about her blades.

He kicked at her and she flipped sideways over it, slashing the side of his calf, then lunged, stabbing at him, only for him to spin around it, slashing her across the back before slamming a kick into her side. She staggered away, then spun, hurling one of her knives, stabbing it into his right shoulder. He shouted in pain, ripping it back out just as she reached him, already having replaced the knife with an identical one. He caught her forearms, then stripped both knives from her, only for her to tackle him, another knife seemingly appearing in her hand as she stabbed downward at him. He caught her arms, holding her back, only for her to drop her full weight onto the back of the knife, driving it down at his face. He jerked his head to the side, barely avoiding the blade before slamming a knee into her side and rolling them both over, forming a blade along the back of his arm and extended out six inches past his fist, then drove it down at her, only for her to sweep it out to the side, allowing it to stab into the ground instead. She stabbed up at his side and he caught her forearm, her free hand holding the back of his right elbow to keep his blade in the ground.

"That is enough!" an older voice snapped, both stopping instantly, his blade faded as they both scrambled to their feet.

He glanced at her as she slid two knives, exactly the same as the ones scattered around them, into her concealed sheaths, then turned his attention back to the man glaring at them. He was the head of their organization, and both of their master. He was a surprisingly kind old man, for being the head of a secret organization of assassins. He had grey hair that was beginning to turn white, a receding hairline leaving more hair in the middle of the top than to either side of it, a white mustache, a pair of aviator glasses with reddish brown lenses, a kind, aged face, a kind smile, and a wrinkled forehead from smiling too much. He was also a master of dozens of martial arts styles, and knew more than anyone either assassin had ever met about super powers, having taught each of them how to control theirs.

"You two never change," the man said. "You've been trying to kill each other for years. What's the problem?"

"He exists," the shooter grumbled.

"She's a cunt," the archer growled.

Both glared at each other, only for their master's walking stick, which hid a long, thin blade, to smack them both over the head.

"You two are both the best I've ever trained," their master said. "But you're also the most stubborn! You're arguing about each other's methods, when you should be thinking about the real problem with your missions today! How did SHIELD know where to find you so fast?"

Both fell silent, glancing at each other before frowning. The shooter may have been obvious, but the archer's best skill was stealth, and he had only fired twice, by which time SHIELD was almost all the way up the building. Both shook their heads.

"If it becomes a recurring problem, I'm going to assign Nick Fury to both of you," the man said. "Cut the head off the snake, and the rest will follow. For now, William, Olivia, I'm ordering the two of you to get along. No more fighting. No more arguing. And no more trying to kill each other. Understand?"

"Yes, Master Stanley," both bowed.

He dismissed them and they headed back to their rooms. As they reached their doors, Olivia spoke up.

"It's your fault he's mad," she snapped.

"Me?" he scoffed. "You attacked me first! As always!"

"Well maybe I wouldn't if you weren't such an asshole!"

"Cunt!"

"Bastard!"

"Bitch!"

"Pussy!"

"Sister fucker!" He slammed his metal door shut not two seconds before bullets began to slam into it, Olivia's shriek echoing even over the gunfire, demanding he open the door and let her kill him.

"No shooting in the base!" their master's voice thundered over the PA, drowning out both Olivia and her guns, which stopped firing instantly. "One more time and you're both going to be punished!"

William groaned, walking to his bed and dropping onto it, kicking his shoes off. It was her fault. It was always her fault. She was a cunt. He had tried to be nice and welcome her when she had arrived a few months after him, and she had responded by threatening to kill him. And she had only grown more and more insufferable as the years had passed. He sighed, closing his eyes, resolving himself to sleep until his next job.

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	2. Chapter 2

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

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Persisting

He walked through the crowded street silently, hands in his pockets. He didn't need to worry about being seen on this one. No one would remember his face in this crowd. He was too average for that. He had brown hair about the same style as Barton's, except the top of his had only a little bit of pomade and nothing else in it, allowing it to be smooth and soft, rather than waxy, then was combed to the right, with a part on the left side. His hair was still loose, since he hated having it too neat, and his bangs just barely covered the top right of his forehead. He had a cowlick in the back that was usually a pain, but that he had gotten good at dealing with. Aside from his hair, he had an average face with an average-sized nose, average-sized brown eyes, though they _did_ have some green around the outside of the irises if anyone got close enough to be kissed in order to see it, and he had a bit of baby fat left in his face, giving it an average shape somewhere between round and slim. If anyone pictured a generic, stereotypical brunette white guy in their early twenties, they'd probably be pretty close to him.

He hated being so painfully average. Even outside of his face he was nothing special. He was slim, and had muscle from his master's training, but he wasn't defined, or bulk, giving him an average build and muscle tone. He was an average height, standing at five foot eight, and his preference in clothing, in part because of his profession, was plain black or dark grey with no patterns. Once in a while he might wear jeans, and he wore a pair of basic, black and white Converse.

Of course, as much as he hated being painfully average, it helped him at his job. He had a face that was easy to overlook and forget, and it allowed him to do public assassinations easily. Case and point, he spotted his target and bumped into him, a dozen spikes of white energy flashing out of his skin into the target, then fading, all in the time it took to blink, and he continued past his target, even as his target collapsed. Thanks to the entire crowd being on their phones and taking a moment to notice, he was a half-block away when the first screams rang out, and he waited until the crowd began to flee to make his escape. Except, as he was running, he spotted Barton searching for him through the crowd ahead of him, Romanoff at his side. He kept his head down, fleeing past them with the regular civilians, then cut into an alleyway, pulling his hood and mask up just in time for a bullet to skip off the brick ahead of him.

He slowed to a stop, turning toward the two SHIELD agents, both of whom were aiming at him. He smirked, raising his hands.

"Why'd you kill that man?" Natasha asked.

"I was told to," William said.

"By who?" Barton demanded.

"God," William said sarcastically. "My boss, dickhead. Who else?"

"Why him?" Natasha asked.

"I don't know," William said. "I get payed to kill someone and I do it. Better question, how'd you know I'd be here."

"Where's your friend?" Natasha asked.

"Friend?" William asked, then snorted. "What, that psychotic bitch with the machine gun from the other day? No. She's not my friend. I can't stand that cunt. I'm just waiting for the day one of us gets the other's name on a little black card. It'll be like Christmas, but with more screaming cunt."

"You two seemed to work together pretty well," Natasha said. "You separated our forces so we couldn't focus on one of you."

"Focusing on one of us wouldn't have changed anything," William snorted. "And no, we were actually supposed to get away before you showed up. Just like today."

"Well, it looks like you're shit out of luck, today," Barton said. "You're not getting away from me again."

"I don't know," William smirked, eyes rising to the walls above the two agents. "The day's not over just yet."

Both agents looked up, seeing glowing white arrows stabbed into the walls of the buildings, the arrows all the same as he fired, three-inch wide arrow heads then a long, inch-wide spike of energy about two feet long with no feathers. Just as they saw them, William snapped his fingers, the arrows all exploding and causing a massive section of the walls to break free and fall at them. Both swore, diving out into the street and avoiding the rubble, only to cause a car accident in the drivers' attempt to not run them over. When they both looked up, William was gone. They both swore, getting up and leaving, reporting his escape again.

William smirked as he walked calmly down the next street over, calmly making his way back to their organization's base.

* * *

Olivia sighted in and stopped. Her argument with William returned to her. She rolled her eyes. She didn't care what he thought. She had a useful way of doing things. And since she had wiped out a quarter of the police in the city in one gunfight, she didn't have to worry about them interfering as quickly as before. She sighted her machine gun in on her target, then groaned, resting her forehead on the floor.

"Fuck you William," Olivia growled. "Fine. I'll prove to you that I don't need to massacre an entire street to kill a target." She slid to the side, then pulled her sniper rifle off her back, then sighted in.

After a moment of adjusting the zoom on her scope, she squeezed off a round. The bullet punched through a power line, which sparked and snapped instantly, the cable swinging down and slamming into her target's neck, electrocuting his body and damn-near taking his head off. Then, it began to jump around, hissing and spitting, hitting several other people before the rest were able to escape.

"Nice shooting," a voice said from behind Olivia, who twisted and looked back, seeing Natasha aiming at her. "Get up slowly."

Olivia sighed, standing and reaching into her sweatshirt pockets, pulling out six knives, these ones all flat kunai, specifically designed for throwing. Natasha raised an eyebrow.

"You really want to fight me with throwing knives while I've already got two pistols aimed at you?" Natasha asked.

"You can run away now if you're scared.," Olivia offered.

Natasha narrowed her eyes, then opened fire, only for Olivia to already be moving, narrowly avoiding the shots. She jumped and spun, hurling all six knives, all of them aimed perfectly, only for Natasha to spin aside and realize that Olivia was still holding all six knives when she landed, the knives still pinned by the blade between her fingers, as they had been before. She risked a glance back and saw the knives the girl had thrown were still there. When she turned back, however, six knives stabbed into her thighs, three per leg. She shouted in pain, collapsing, and Olivia smirked, holding up one hand, both of which were once again holding three knives each.

"You're a clever one, Agent Romanoff," Olivia said. "You probably just figured out my trick, didn't you?"

"Duplication," Natasha said. "You can duplicate the bullets in a gun as you shoot, or you can duplicate the knives in your hand as you throw them."

"Impressive," Olivia grinned. "You're right. Which means you can't be allowed to live."

"That's too bad," Natasha said. "I didn't come alone this time."

Olivia spun, hurling her six knives into the air in front of herself, blocking an arrow before she flipped backward, collecting the first six knives she'd thrown and retreating into the stairwell. As she did, SHIELD agents swarmed into the building on the ground floor, only to clear the entire building without finding her.

"How the hell did she escape?" Barton asked over the radio.

"I have no idea," Natasha said. "She can't have gone far. See if you can find her."

As Barton began to struggle to find Olivia walking away from the building, Olivia smiled pleasantly, typing away at her computer on the third floor. She was perfect for her job. She was too pretty to be accused of being an assassin, even if Natasha Romanoff was an exception to the rule. Olivia's dirty blonde hair reached the middle of her back in gentle waves, but she kept it over her left shoulder, she had hazel eyes somewhere between green and brown, a gentle, slim face that she was usually told looked a lot like Nina Agdal's, and perky, C-cup breasts coupled with a tight, firm ass to give her a slim hourglass figure.

Under her usual dark clothes, she wore an outfit that would allow her to blend in after it as needed. In this case, it was a short, dark blue mini skirt, a white blouse, unbuttoned to show off her cleavage, and a light blue vest, the uniform of the building, which she had taken from the person whose desk she was sitting at, and who she had killed to get the uniform. She smirked as the SHIELD troops all left the building, beginning to search around it for her.

* * *

"This is getting annoying," William said. "Including Olivia's job, that's three in a row that SHIELD was ready for."

"I agree," his master nodded, looking between the two. "I'm giving the order. Kill Nick Fury."

* * *

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	3. Chapter 3

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

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Struggling

William watched Fury's vehicle as it rolled down the street. His orders were clear and absolute. He was allowed two shots. If he couldn't kill Fury with that many, he was to retreat. And he wasn't allowed any collateral damage. Only Fury. William would be fine with collateral damage. Collateral damage meant he could just blow the vehicle up, rather than having to worry about either getting Fury out of it, or putting an arrow through the bulletproof glass, which was a hard task to accomplish, even for him. However, he couldn't just blow up the vehicle, because Fury had his right hand, Maria Hill, with him. As always.

William's eyes flicked along the road to where there was a traffic jam at the intersection, on account of the traffic lights William had hacked into flashing the same on all sides, making it impossible for anyone to go. Hill slowed to a stop and Fury opened his door and stood, staring at the lights. Then, an arrow tore a gash across his chest. He shouted in pain and surprise, falling to the ground, and William fired a second arrow, only for Fury to roll aside, narrowly avoiding it before William fled, the edge of the building where he'd been being peppered by Hill's bullets for a moment.

* * *

Olivia sighted in, slipping the one and only bullet she was allowed to fire into her sniper rifle, pushing the lever forward and down. She sighted in, placing the crosshairs on Fury's chest, then slowly squeezed. With a deafening report, the armor-piercing bullet raced away, punching clean through the windshield and into Fury's abdomen. However, Olivia sighed. It wasn't a necessarily fatal hit. Hill instantly swerved sideways into a side street and Olivia stood, slinging her sniper rifle across her back as she heard shouting and feet stomping up the stairs behind her. She shook her head, shooting out a window with her P99 before swapping it for a grappling gun and leaping out, swinging down to the roof of the next building just before SHIELD agents swarmed the room she'd just left.

* * *

"They knew I was there, _again_!" Olivia said. "I only barely had enough time to take the shot. And because of the rule about only taking one, I couldn't even kill the bastard."

"I think it's pretty obvious by now we've got a mole," William said.

"I agree," their master nodded. "The two of you will work together on the next job. Do whatever you need to do to kill Fury, but try to keep the casualties to a minimum. No innocents. Maria Hill is fine, as long as Fury goes too, but no killing civilians or police. I'll sniff out our rat."

William and Olivia both nodded, then glared at each other. A few minutes later, the arguing over who should take the kill shot began.

* * *

"Ready?" William asked.

"On you," Olivia responded.

William pulled his bow's energy string back, his index finger extended to form the arrow along, the arrow's body extending as he pulled the string. However, just as he was about to fire, he stopped, hearing feet behind himself. "I don't fucking believe it."

"You're shitting me!" Olivia said.

"Shift position," William said. "Don't tell me where, just make it quick."

He switched his bow for a hammer and smashed the window out, then switched back to a bow, firing an arrow at the roof of a skyscraper beside his current position. As it flew, his waved his right arm in two circles in front of him self, then pulled it back to his side. A trail of glowing energy shot down instantly, slipping through his clenched fist and wrapping around it twice before a short tail of the energy rope dropped out the bottom of his fist. Then, as soon as the arrow stabbed into the building, William yanked the rope and it retracted, launching him up out of the building just as the door was blasted open by C4. He sped through the air on the rapidly shortening rope before flipping over the edge of the building and allowing the arrow and rope both to fade, sprinting to the edge, forming himself another arrow.

"Set!" he snarled.

"Set!" Olivia replied.

He released his arrow and it sped down Fury's vehicle, exploding against the back of the vehicle and flipping it forward onto its roof. The moment it skidded to a stop, Olivia's bullet slammed into the gas tank and the entire SUV turned into a fireball, only for William to see both Fury and Hill hobbling away from the fireball. He swore, forming yet another arrow and fired, the arrow punching through Fury's back. Fury went down hard, Hill grabbing him and dragging him into cover. Then, William pulled his neck gaiter up again just as Barton flipped over the side of the building, firing two arrows at him, which he knocked out of the air by spinning his energy bow.

Barton clearly wasn't in the mood to talk, because he began to run and rapidly fire arrows. William responded in kind, deflecting the arrows with his bow and firing back, Barton dodging all of his. Finally, William reached the edge and leapt over it, firing an arrow into it while keeping an energy rope connected to his right hand, swinging down and around a corner before the energy rope caught on the corner and swung up, throwing him into the air. He extended his index finger, ring finger, and pinky, forming an arrow along each before firing, Barton barely avoiding the three arrows. He fired his own into the ground at William's feet and it exploded, only for William to flip out of the smoke, rolling under a pointed arrow, then standing with an energy sword, a very basically-shaped one with a two inch wide double-edged blade looking similar to the flame from a blow-torch if it was flat, then two similar streams of energy, about three inches long each, just above his hand as the guard. He slashed at Barton, who spun out of the way, swiping at him with his bow, only for William to avoid the bow, slashing when he could.

Finally, Barton spun, slamming a spinning back kick into William's chest, hurling him backward over the edge of the building. However, just as Barton reached the edge of the building, William crashed into a window, his energy rope and arrow fading. Barton swore, sprinting for the stairs and descending rapidly, only to find William had, once again, escaped.

* * *

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	4. Chapter 4

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

* * *

Betrayal

William sighed, resting his face in his hands. Fury was alive. He had survived both his and Olivia's attempts to kill him, and Natasha had survived a fight against Olivia a third time. It was turning out to be a very annoying task to take down the head of SHIELD, or to stop Fury's two assassins from hounding them. On a related note, their master had failed to find out who the mole was.

"I think I might need to find a new job," William mused, standing and pulling on a his usual outfit, the same he wore for both training and work, then headed for the training room where their master would be training them for the day. However, just outside the room, he stopped as he saw Olivia hiding beside the door, her 5.7 in-hand and an agitated, fearful, angry look on her face. He darted over to stand opposite her and stopped to listen.

"-can't believe you were the one to sell out the organization, Lester," their master was saying. "Why?"

"Why?" Lester, who called himself bullseye for his borderline superhuman ability to turn anything into a deadly projectile, and because he's only missed his target five times in his life, scoffed. "Because I want to! Because once I kill you, I'll be the new leader! And you, the great Master Stanley Marvel, will be just another corpse rotting in the ground."

William moved to help, only for Olivia to vigorously shake her head, stopping him. He gave her a confused look and she used sign language to tell him there were sixteen people inside, besides Bullseye and their master.

"So you've all decided to stage a coup, have you?" their master asked.

"That's right old man," a new voice said. "You've gotten old. You can't take us all."

"We'll see about that," the master chuckled.

Then, there was chaos. Gunshots, screams, the sound of their master's blade stabbing and slashing his attackers. William moved to help, only for Olivia to slam him into the the wall.

"You are _not_ interfering!" she snarled. "Master forbade-"

Two gunshots rang out and the chaos ended abruptly. They both stopped, looking toward the door.

"Get out of here!" their master shouted, just before another gunshot went off and they heard his sword fall to the floor.

Olivia moved to enter this time, but in a complete reversal, William grabbed her around the waist, quickly dragging her away. After the first corner, she gave in, turning and running with him. She drew her P99s, and William formed his bow, both quickly heading for the exit. However, as they ran, assassins from their organization began to find them, attacking them. They killed anyone they met, fleeing rapidly before being forced away from the exit and down to the basement. They fled quickly, eventually reaching a back exit and slipping outside. However, Bullseye was waiting. He a body suit, and had a half-mask with a white target painted on the forehead, like he was some cheesy comic book villain.

"Took you two long enough," Bullseye smirked. "You two wiped out a bunch of my new employees." He glared at them. "Master used to think you were the best assassins in the entire organization, after himself. But since I killed him, I wonder if that means that I'm better than you."

Bullseye's hand shot to his pistol, his eyes shifting to Olivia, and William spun, stepping in front of her just in time for Bullseye's bullet to punch through his chest, narrowly missing Olivia. Olivia shoved him aside instantly, then began to spray bullets at Bullseye out of her P99s. Bullseye swore, several bullets punching through him before he turned to run, only to go down within two steps. Olivia turned to run instantly, only to stop, looking back at William.

He rolled onto his back, gasping in a breath, then coughing up blood. He rolled his head to the side, staring at her. "What are you waiting for, you dumb bitch? Get the...fuck out of here! Leave before...they figure out...we're not...dead yet."

Olivia turned away but stopped, gritting her teeth. "Fuck, I hate you William!"

She turned, running back over and picking him up, struggling to lift him onto her back, his own legs not able to support his weight.

"Why the hell...are you helping me?" he asked. "I told you...to leave."

"Shut the fuck up, you useless bastard!" she snarled. "I'll fucking drop you!"

She finally got him onto her back and grabbed one of her pistols just as the door burst open, only for her to spray the assassins as they tried to chase them. Finally, William managed to put an arrow through the door, the arrow exploding and giving Olivia the chance to flee the rest of the organization.

* * *

William groaned as Olivia pressed a bandage to his chest, quickly bandaging him. He watched her carefully as she washed her hands, her face unreadable.

"Why'd you save me?" William asked finally.

Olivia was silent for a long while, scrubbing his blood off of her hands before finally sighing. "Because you saved me," Olivia said.

"I had very little chance of beating him if he got his gun out before I had an arrow ready," William said. "You had a better chance of killing him and getting away. Then you could make the organization pay for killing Master. I may not give two shits about you, but he was a father to me. I only saved you so you could take revenge on him."

"I didn't mean from Bullseye," Olivia said. "I knew why you did that. I meant after Argentina."

William stared at her, before sighing slowly, tilting his head back and closing his eyes. Argentina. He had forgotten. It was hell. They had been sent on a job together, barely made it to the target alive, thanks to an entire drug cartel working for the target as a private army, only managed to kill the target by a fluke car accident, and then escaped with Olivia taking a half-dozen rounds to the torso and William carrying her out of the country on his back. Once they'd gotten back, he'd given her his blood to save her life.

"I've owed you a debt ever since, as much as I didn't want to admit to it, so now we're even," Olivia said.

"We're also out of a job," William said. "So, what now?"

Olivia was silent for a few minutes before sighing. "We could try our hand at mercenary work on our own. I don't much like the idea of sitting behind a desk, or standing behind a cash register."

"I suppose," William sighed. "It'll be about...what...three...four months until I'm healed? Will you stay until I am?"

Olivia stared at him for a moment. "Fine. But the first time you annoy me, I put a new hole in you and drop you off at SHIELD's headquarters."

"I wasn't asking you to stay, you insufferable bitch," William growled, glaring at her with all the hatred and contempt she felt for him. "I was asking if you were planning to. Dumb cunt."

"You're not exactly catch yourself, you Average Joe bastard!" Olivia retorted, hitting him exactly where she knew it would hurt worst.

William opened his mouth to return the favor with the low blow he knew would win the argument, but he made the mistake of sitting up slightly to do it, and suddenly agony lanced through him, making him gasp harshly, then fall back to the bed, groaning. Olivia smirked victoriously, crossing her arms. Finally, she sighed.

"My debt wouldn't be repayed if I did all this work to save you then leave, and you die anyway," she said. "I'll stay until you can fend for yourself, but then I'm leaving."

William nodded. "Fine. I don't really have much choice anyway."

Olivia glared at him, then turned, walking out of the room.

* * *

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	5. Chapter 5

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

* * *

Recuperating

William groaned, holding a hand tenderly to his chest, only for Olivia to slap it away.

"Don't touch it, dumbass!" Olivia snapped. "Are you _trying_ to keep it from healing and make me stay here longer?"

"Trust me, cunt, that's the _last_ fucking thing I want," William growled.

She handed him a glass of water and several pills and he swallowed them, drinking the water, then grimaced, tilting his head back. After a half hour, he finally sighed, the pain beginning to fade slightly. He lifted his head, returning to watching the TV. They had the screen split, the left side playing through the news channels, monitoring it for anything on them, or on Bullseye, who had apparently survived, then gotten broken out of jail. On the right side, they were watching Rick and Morty. Finding our they had something in common, and enjoyment of Rick and Morty, was probably one of the more revolting experiences in William's life. Right up next to having to live with her. The only bright side was the thought that she would be leaving eventually, and he'd never have to deal with her again.

* * *

William grit his teeth, remaining silent as she pressed the bandage to his chest, slowly bandaging his wound again. Finally, she finished and he pushed himself up, making his way slowly to the stove and taking some pasta out of the cupboard beside it, along with a pot, then a spoon from the drawer below the cupboard. He limped to the sink, filling the pot before carefully heading back to the stove.

As he was doing this, Olivia had gone to take a bath, as was their usual routine, ever since he had gotten healed enough to move around, as long as he was careful. She usually finished her shower just in time for him to finish cooking, so it wasn't a problem. He waited for the water to boil, then poured in the pasta, begging to lazily stir it with the spoon, mind beginning to drift.

It had been a month since he was shot. They didn't really argue much anymore. Both of them had decided that they didn't feel like living in a constant state of animosity, or else they'd end up giving themselves ulcers from their negativity. Instead, they tended to simply not speak anymore. They still hated each other, and would often do something that they knew annoyed the other, specifically for that purpose, but they had learned to live with together without actively trying to kill each other. Just like their master had always wanted.

He flicked a piece of macaroni at the wall, watching it stick, and moved the pot off the burner, turning it off. As he poured in the cheese, he glanced at the side, just in time to see Olivia walk out of her room in her underwear. He stopped, blinking several times as his brain did a hard reset. By the time it was done, he had stared the entire time she had left her room, collected her clean clothes from the washing machine, and then walked back to her room again. He shook his head, returning to mixing the cheese into the macaroni. Just as he finished, Olivia walked out again, this time in a pair of fuzzy dark blue pants and a black sweatshirt. He held out her plate and she took it, then glared at him.

"Did you enjoy the show, perv?" she growled.

"Only about as much as watching the Pain Olympics," William grumbled, picking up his own plate and immediately shouting in pain as his body spasmed, his plate clashing to the ground, followed shortly by him.

Olivia sighed, setting the plate down and kneeling, pulling him up and over to the couch, dropping him on it. She walked back to the dropped pasta and picked up the plate, putting it in the sink and quickly cleaning up the pasta with a paper towel. After a few minutes, she finished and got him a new plate of pasta. She set it on his lap, a fork already sticking out of it, then sat down beside him with her own, turning on the TV.

William stared at the plate in silence for several long moments. "Thank you. And I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare. I just...I sometimes forget how beautiful you are."

She stared at him before sighing. "Don't worry about it. I'm...not angry. I'm used to people staring. Staring was better than..."

"I'm sorry," William said, again making her stare at him in surprise. "I...You may be an insufferable cunt, but...no one should have to go through that."

Olivia narrowed her eyes slightly. "You need a tampon for that vagina you just grew?"

"Fine," William snarled. "Be a fucking cunt. I don't give a shit. I hope it all happens to you again."

Olivia's face flushed with fury, but she turned back tot he TV, clenching her fork tightly as she ate her pasta. William likewise ate in silence, his hand trembling from pain as much as from anger.

* * *

William unwrapped his bandages and stared at his reflection. It was almost done healing. A few more weeks. A month at most. He sighed, rebandaging it, then pulled on a clean shirt, walking out into the kitchen just as Olivia set a ham on it, the rest of the table already set.

"Looks good," William said.

Olivia ignored him. He sighed. He was trying to be nice. Really he was. But after the argument a few days ago, she wasn't interested in being polite. It was fair of her not to. He had crossed a line. She had crossed a line. She had insulted his appearance again, but this time she had also said that it was the reason he'd never been in a relationship, something he'd always been ashamed of. She knew, of course, because one of the times he had gotten drunk, he'd blacked out and talked about it, and she'd been sober.

Of course, once she'd used that low blow, William had responded in kind. He'd told her that he sympathized with the men who had raped her when she was young. That he regretted Master having killed them all and saved her from them. Then, he had called her a disgusting, sister-fucking whore. And insult that would, without fail, outweigh anything. Because she _had_, in fact, had sex with her sister. However, the circumstances hadn't been nearly as simple as that. When she had done it, both sisters had been the hostages of a particularly depraved and cruel man, who frequently tortured her sister, and raped both. Finally, he had ordered Olivia to rape her sister, or else he'd kill her. So, Olivia had. She had been ashamed of her actions, she had hated herself for it, and in the end, the man had killed her sister anyway. Then he had turned to kill Olivia, only for William and their master to arrive, their master killing the man while William tended to Olivia.

"I'm sorry for what I said," William apologized for the millionth time.

"Open your mouth for anything other than to eat one more time, and I'm going to kill you," Olivia spat.

William sighed, sitting down and taking a few slices of ham, eating in silence and resigning himself to not speak until she decided otherwise.

* * *

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	6. Chapter 6

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

* * *

Hired

A knock echoed through the apartment. Within seconds, Olivia had a pair of pistols aimed at the door, and William an arrow. William glanced at Olivia, who nodded for him to open it.

"Those won't be necessary," a calm, male voice said. "I'm not here to fight."

"Who are you?" William asked.

"My name is Phil Coulson," the voice said. "I'm with SHIELD."

William and Olivia both swore harshly and turned to go out the window.

"I would stay away from the window, if I were you," Coulson warned. "We have orders to shoot you both if you try to escape, and every window in your apartment has three snipers aiming at it. Please open the door. I'm only here to talk."

William looked to Olivia, who glared at the door for a moment before nodding. William sighed and walked over, unlocking the door before backing up and reforming his bow and arrow. "Come in."

The door opened and a man with a receding hairline, brown hair, a nice suit, and a folder in his hand walked in, smiling pleasantly, despite having both Olivia's guns and William's arrow aimed directly at him.

"As I said, those aren't necessary," Coulson said. "SHIELD isn't currently trying to arrest or kill you. You were hired for a job, you failed to complete it by pure luck. Then you stopped. You were betrayed by your own organization, your master was killed, and you've been in hiding since. One of you was recovering from a gunshot wound, and one of you was doing odd jobs ranging from assassinations, to baby sitting in order to earn enough money to take care of the other."

"You were babysitting?" William asked.

"Not everyone needs someone killed," Olivia said. "I think we have more important matters to attend to, don't we?"

"As you can see, we never lost track of you," Coulson said, setting the folder on the table and opened it, spreading out over a dozen photos of the both of them, some taken through the windows of their apartments, some taken of Olivia during one of her jobs. "We simply had no reason to deal with you while you weren't after Director Fury anymore."

"What does SHIELD want?" Olivia asked.

"SHIELD could use your help," Coulson said. "A very dangerous artifact was stolen from us by a very dangerous alien known as Loki. Loki has the power to brainwash people, and took Agent Barton under his control."

"That sucks," William said. "He's good. You're going to have your hands full."

"Actually, you will," Coulson said. "You see, SHIELD is asking nicely right now, and you'll be compensated for your help in resolving the situation. SHIELD will ensure that each of you is payed one hundred thousand dollars upon completion of the job, and will provide food, housing, and any medical needs in the mean time. However, SHIELD's offer isn't really an offer. If you refuse, SHIELD will decide that you're too dangerous to be left alive."

"You son of a bitch!" William snarled, drawing his bow back further, only for Olivia to set a hand on his arm, stopping him.

"Don't," Olivia said. "Use your head, dumb fuck. You kill him, those snipers kill us."

"That's right," Coulson said. "In light of SHIELD's conditions, you really can't afford to refuse."

William glared at Coulson for a long moment before sighing, easing the tension out of his bow and lowering it. "Five hundred thousand each. That way as soon as we're done I can get away from this cunt."

"Cannot fucking come soon enough," Olivia growled.

"Deal," Coulson nodded, holding out a glass tablet. "This has all the details of who you'll be working with and what you'll be up against."

William accepted it and Coulson flipped a switch on the plastic top of it, images appearing on the glass like a touch screen. William swiped through the files quickly, raising an eyebrow as he saw Natasha, Captain America, and Iron Man were three of the files listed under allies. "We'll do our homework. Where are we meeting? And when?"

"In the morning, someone will be along to collect you two," Coulson said, then turned and walked away, closing the door behind him.

William was silent for a long while. "We can't trust them."

"Not at all," Olivia agreed. "On the other hand..." she flipped through several of the files before turning the tablet toward him. "This could be quite lucrative."

He stared at the screen. It was displaying an image of Tony Stark, and he instantly realized what she meant. High risk missions involved casualties. And Tony Stark's arc reactor was quite valuable. He hummed thoughtfully, before nodding slowly.

"We'll see," he said. "It depends on if we have the chance. We'll wait until they pick us up, then decide from there."

Olivia nodded and they both set about preparing to leave. There was no rest that night. They took turns on watch, making sure no one tried to kill them in their sleep. Then, the next day, they grabbed their duffel bags, each of them having one with spare clothes, toiletries, and some food inside and nothing else, and headed down to the curb, where a black suburban was waiting for them. Immediately, the passenger side window rolled down and Fury stared at them from the seat.

"Get in the car," he said, leaving no room for discussion.

Both complied, William forming an energy dagger as Olivia drew a P99.

"It's nice to finally meet the two of you," Fury greeted them, once Hill had driven a ways. "You two have been two of the biggest thorns in SHIELD's side for quite a while. At least, before your master got capped and you two went into hiding. Oh, sorry. Touchy subject?"

Both assassins glared at the man they'd both failed to kill.

"You two both tried to kill me, repeatedly," Fury reminded them, "so I hope you understand the gravity of me meeting the two of you in person. I know you're not planning to accept our offer, and if you do, you're only doing it for the chance to steal something valuable. I get it. You two want to be left alone, and you don't care about anyone but yourselves. But if you two did your homework last night, you'll understand the severity of the current predicament. Loki _cannot_ be allowed to walk free, or to keep the Tesseract. We need you two's skills."

"And after the job's done?" William asked.

"SHIELD forgets you two exist, deposits a very generous sum of money into two separate accounts that belong to people we don't know, and you two never need to watch your back for SHIELD agents aiming sniper rifles at you again, so long as you never aim yours at SHIELD again," Fury said.

"Where do we start?" Olivia asked.

"Enjoy a road trip," Fury said. "We'll be there soon."

He turned back to the front and Olivia and William settled in for the ride, neither disarming themselves.

* * *

William stepped off of the jet they'd switched to and looked around at the aircraft carrier they were on. He supposed it was fitting. If SHIELD was going to look for an alien that claimed to be a god, they couldn't stay in one facility, especially since that one facility had apparently been turned into a sink hole by a black hole Loki had accidentally opened while using the Tesseract, a cube of unimaginable power, to teleport himself to the facility.

"Nice base, I guess," Olivia said. "They probably have some pretty nice weapons here."

"Looking to upgrade from machine pistols?" William asked.

"Oh I'm keeping the pistols," Olivia said. "But I could use some guns with more power and penetration. I don't like running around with a medium machine gun that weighs fifty pounds. I want a nice automatic assault rifle."

"I'm sure you can find one here," William said.

"And what, exactly, will you be finding?" Natasha asked, walking over to them and crossing her arms.

"A better gun to shoot you with if you annoy me," Olivia said flatly, the two women glaring at each other.

"Olivia," William said. "As much as I'd love to see the two of you fight to the death, and hopefully both die, now's not the best time. I'd like to actually get payed my half-million dollars."

Olivia turned her glare on him. "_You'll_ be lucky if I let you live that long!"

She turned, storming away, and William sighed. Still mad.

"Trouble in paradise?" Natasha asked.

"How many times do we have to tell you all that we're not dating before you finally figure out we're telling the truth?" William grumbled. "We hate each other. I'm just waiting for an excuse to put an arrow in her head."

"Whatever you say," Natasha said. "Come on. Your room's this way."

She waked away and William sighed, following her. Once she had left, he walked to the room's window, watching as SHIELD agents and the ship's crew ran around on the flight deck. More jets arrived. After a few minutes, William picked out Captain America, easy to identify from him being six and a half feet tall and solid muscle. He could see Bruce Banner as well. Then, suddenly, the ship lurched slightly and began to rise, a propeller rising from the water where Banner and Rogers were looking over the side of the ship. William grinned. A flying aircraft carrier. Now _that_ was more like it. He was legitimately impressed. He smirked, and dropped his bag beside his bed, pulling out a Subway steak and cheese sandwich and began to eat, waiting for his first task to be assigned.

* * *

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	7. Chapter 7

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

* * *

Asgardians

William smirked at Rogers as they flew. They were going to fight Loki, who had revealed himself publicly, at least to SHIELD, who was monitoring every camera in the world, and they were heading to intercept him. They didn't know what he was doing, or why he was there, but they were going to stop him. They, in this case, being him and Rogers with Natasha flying the jet.

"Hey look, things don't look so bad," William said, looking out the window where four Lokis had a crowd surrounded, Loki ordering them all to kneel before him. "He's just teaching them that they're all worthless."

"You're a real class act, you know that?" Rogers asked.

"Did you figure that out when you found out I'm only helping because I'm being payed five hundred thousand dollars?" William asked, just as an old man stood from the crowd. "Oh look. A hero. Old fucker's got some guts, I'll give him that."

"What?" Rogers asked, seeing what William meant. "Fuck! Open the back!"

"Do you have a 'chute?" William asked.

"No time!" Rogers shouted, leaping out of the back and landing on his shield on a building off to the side, then leaping from there to the old man just in time to block a blast of blue energy Loki had fired from his scepter, a long gold staff with silver blades in a sort of claw-like shape on one end with a glowing blue stone in the center that looked similar to the Tesseract. The energy blast bounced back at Loki, blasting him.

"Hm," William grunted. "Not bad. Spin this thing around, Romanoff. I don't think you want me sniping through the floor of the jet."

"No I do not," Natasha said, yanking the yoke and making the jet pitch backward, throwing William out through the still open hatch.

William shouted in surprise before catching a fountain in the middle of the crowd, swinging around and letting go, landing on several civilians. He sighed, pulling his hood and neck gaiter up before standing and turning to Loki and Rogers, both of whom were watching him. "Oh shut up. Not all of us can be a god or a super soldier. I'd say that was pretty graceful for getting thrown out of a jet."

"I know who the soldier is," Loki said. "But who are you?"

"Me?" William asked. "Well, I'd tell you to call me 'Master,' but you'd probably get too excited and turn it into some kinda freaky gay sex thing." He formed a bow and arrow. "You can call me Archer."

"No, I believe Agent Barton is the archer," Loki smirked. "Judging by the powers, you're nothing but a soldier for hire. Barton has spoken of you. Perhaps I can interest you in a deal."

"I _do_ like deals," William smirked. "Let me hear your offer."

"I have a better idea," Rogers said. "I'll arrest him, he gives us the Tesseract, and then _both_ of you go to jail."

"See, this is why you're a soldier, not a commander," William said. "No business sense."

"Don't make me shoot both of you," Natasha warned from the jet's PA system, a minigun whirring to life as she prepared to make good on her threat.

"If you align yourself with me, when I conquer and rule the Earth, I will give you your own kingdom," Loki said. "You will kneel to me, and in return, you shall want for nothing. You shall be allowed to kill who you want, when you want, and you shall not _need_ money. You will need to but speak your desire, and you will have an entire kingdom to fulfill it. Women, food, drink, killing. You shall have your fill of it all. You need only kneel before me. Prove yourself by killing the soldier, and you will be my right hand."

"Oh, wow," William grinned. "Now _that_ is how you offer someone a job. That is by far, the single most incredibly tempting offer I've ever heard. Tell me, if I join you, will you give me a way to kill Olivia without her shooting me, because she's really good at shooting."

"I shall take her arms from her torso, and allow you to beat her to death with them," Loki said.

William laughed. "I like it! This man knows his shit." He nodded appreciatively. "Man. That's just too good a deal to pass up. I'd have to be stupid to."

"Archer!" Rogers snapped.

"You know, my Master taught me something once," William said. "Aside from how to control my power, and how to fight. He taught me that there's one thing that matters above all else. Something that can't be bought or sold."

"And what's that?" Loki asked.

"Honor," William said. "I _always_ honor my contracts. And right now, I'm contracted to take you out."

He released his arrow and it flashed across the square they were all in, only to explode into sparks against the blades of Loki's scepter. Loki snarled in rage, firing a blast at William, only for Rogers to deflect it, the blast instead hitting the rotor of Natasha's jet. Rogers swore and Loki turned on him, only to immediately turn and block the energy sword William slashed at him with. The sword failed to cut through Loki's scepter, but as soon as William had landed, he formed a shining white boot around his right foot and planted it in Loki's chest, Loki streaking backward instantly, crashing to the ground. He grabbed his scepter and pushed himself up instantly, rage filling his face.

"You could have been a king!" Loki seethed. "Now, you'll just be another rotting corpse!"

Just then, the jet began to play ACDC's Shoot to Thrill just as Natasha leapt out of it, less than a second before Iron Man flew down, the repulsors in his gauntlets blasted Loki in the chest, hurling him backward into the steps of the building Loki had been in before they arrived. William aimed another arrow at Loki instantly as Stark aimed a repulsor on his right hand, a rocket on the back of his left wrist, and shoulder-fired rockets all at Loki, Rogers joining them with his shield.

"Make a move, Reindeer Games," Stark said.

Loki released his staff, slowly raising his hand as his armor shone and faded, along with the cape it had attached, leaving him in a black jacket with gold highlights and pauldrons, a piece of gold metal reaching from one shoulder under the coat down to his chest, then back up to the other shoulder, and black pants. Stark's weapons all retracted and he lowered his arms.

"Good move," Stark said.

"Perfect," William agreed, releasing his arrow.

It flashed across the distance at Loki, scratching his cheek on the way past before hitting the scepter and transforming into a length of energy rope, which was still in William's hand. Then, William yanked it and the scepter shot toward him, slamming into the back of Loki's head and knocking him out before William caught it.

"There," William said. "Now we just need a new ride."

"Already here," Stark said as another jet, this one with no pilot, arrived and landed.

They loaded Loki onto the jet, restraining him, and Natasha took off, beginning to fly back toward the helicarrier, as Natasha had identified SHIELD's mobile headquarters.

"You didn't betray us," Natasha noted as she flew.

"I don't like the idea of kneeling before anyone," William said. "Except my Master. And he drilled loyalty to my clients into me every training session. I honor my jobs, and my debts, before anything else. That's partly why Olivia's still alive."

Just then, lightning flashed around them, William looking around outside the windshield. A moment ago, the skies had been basically clear. Now, they were in the middle of a gigantic storm.

"Loki's the Asgardian wannabe god of mischief, right?" William asked.

"Yes, why?" Natasha asked.

"Because he has a brother who's quite skilled with storms," William said.

"What's the matter?" Rogers was asking Loki. "Scared of a little lightning?"

"I'm not overly fond of what follows," Loki said.

Just then, something crashed into the top of their jet, making the jet jerk suddenly. William swore, forming himself a pair of daggers. Stark put his helmet on and opened the ramp just in time for a muscular man with shoulder-length blond hair, a dirty blond beard, an armored black vest, red cape, black pants, and a hammer in his hand to land on it. Stark stepped forward but Thor smashed the hammer into his chest, hurling him backward into Rogers. William switched his knives for a bow and arrow, Thor glaring at him.

"Please don't make me make you kill me, Thor," William said. "I don't fancy my chances against a supposed god who can actually fight worth a damn, but I can't let you have Loki. I'm being payed good money to make sure we get the Tesseract back from him."

Thor huffed, turning to Loki, only to instantly swipe his hammer upward, shattering an arrow. William stepped forward, forming a sword, only for Thor to push kick him, sending him crashing into Stark and Rogers both. Then, he released Loki's seatbelt and grabbed him by the throat, turning to the ramp and leapt out, taking flight instantly. William groaned, rolling off of the two heroes and hoping his back and chest weren't as broken as they felt.

"That guy's a friendly?" Rogers asked as he and Stark stood.

"Doesn't matter," Stark said. "If he frees Loki, or kills him, the Tesseract is lost."

"Stark, we need a plan of attack," Rogers said as Stark moved to follow Thor.

"I have a plan," Stark said. "Attack."

Then, he took off. Rogers grabbed a parachute and strapped it on while Natasha advised him to stay where he was, saying Thor was basically a god. Rogers responded by saying he didn't believe that, then leapt out of the jet. Natasha looked to William, who was just dragging himself into a seat.

"Don't look at me," William groaned. "I'm going to play this the smart way by not leaving this jet."

Natasha nodded, turning back to the front, and began to turn around to go back for them.

* * *

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	8. Chapter 8

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

* * *

Arguing

William watched the video feed of Loki speaking with Fury. He had sat patiently on a mountain while Thor fought Stark, a fight which ended when Thor hit Rogers' shield, causing a massive explosion of energy that leveled the trees for a hundred meters around. Then, he had accepted his arrest calmly, wearing a smile the entire way in.

"He's exactly where he wants to be," Olivia spoke up, seeming to be reading William's mind, interrupting the others, who were talking about Eric Selvig, a physicist Loki had brainwashed to have build a portal using the Tesseract in order to lead his army, called the Chitauri, through it.

"Agreed," William nodded. "If he had wanted to escape, he could have done it while Thor and Stark were busy."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki," Banner said. "That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him."

"Have care how you speak," Thor warned. "Loki is beyond reason but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother."

"He killed eighty people in two days," Natasha said, giving him an unimpressed look.

"He's adopted?" Thor added.

"I think it's about the mechanics," Banner said. "Iridium. What do they need Iridium for?"

He was talking about Barton stealing a massive chunk of it while they were focusing on Loki.

"It's a stabilizing agent," Stark said, walking into the room, talking to Agent Coulson about flying him somewhere. "It means, the portal won't collapse on itself like it did at SHIELD. No hard feelings, Point Break, you got a mean swing." He tapped Thor on the shoulder as he passed him. "Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants." He looked around at the SHIELD personnel controlling the helicarrier. "Raise the mizzenmast. Jib the topsails. That man is playing Galaga." He pointed off to the side where one guy _was_, in fact, playing Galaga on his computer. "He thought we wouldn't notice, but we did." Stark covered his left eye, looking down at the computer screens to the left of where Fury would stand, where Stark currently was. "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns," Hill said.

"Sounds exhausting," Stark said, turning to the computer screens on his right and beginning to play with it. "The rest of the raw materials Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high-energy density. Something to...kick start the cube." He did an odd snapping, clapping gesture.

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill asked.

"Last night," Stark said. "The packet. Selvig's notes. The extraction theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Rogers asked.

"He'd have to heat the cube to a hundred twenty million kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Banner said.

"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunnel effect," Stark said.

"Well if he could do that, he could achieve heavy ion fusion at any reactor on the planet," Banner said.

"Finally, someone who speaks English," Stark said.

"Is that what just happened?" Rogers asked, smirking.

"This is why we have two geniuses here rather than one," William said. "They can bounce ideas off of each other."

"I'm a huge fan of how you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster," Stark was saying.

"A what?" William asked.

"Doctor Banner is only here to track the cube," Fury said, walking into the room. "I was hoping you would join him."

"I would start with that stick of his," Rogers said. "It may be magical but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

"I don't know about that, but it _is_ powered by the cube," Fury said. "And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

"Monkeys?" Thor asked. "I do not understand."

"I do!" Rogers said, everyone sighing in exasperation, Stark rolling his eyes. "I understood that reference."

"Shall we play, doctor?" Stark asked.

"This way, sir," Banner said, leading him out of the room.

Once Fury had left as well, the guy that had been playing Galaga went right back to it. William sighed heavily.

"What?" Rogers asked.

"I want something to beat the shit out of," William said, eyes flicking to Olivia, a knowing grin growing on his face, only for Natasha to stomp on his fun.

"No," Natasha said. "The last thing we need is the two of you killing each other, as nice as it would be to not have to deal with you."

"I'm sorry, is there a story here?" Rogers asked.

"Olivia and I routinely try to kill each other, and were ordered to kill Fury, which we consistently failed at by dumb luck, so we've fought Agents Romanoff and Barton several times," William said. "Anyway, I'm going to find something to hit. Or shoot."

He walked out of the room and the others eventually scattered as well, all going their own directions.

"So, you're sure scanning my powers won't affect the search?" William asked. "Because the last thing I want to do is delay payday."

"How much are you getting payed?" Stark asked.

"Five hundred thousand," William said. "Enough for a new life, _very_ far away from Olivia."

Stark snorted. "I doubt you'll go far. For as much as you hate each other, you've been watching each other's back for months since you finished healing, which she says was when you had agreed to go your separate ways."

"We're jut waiting-"

"To get revenge," Stark finished. "I know. She told me the story."

William nodded, forming his bow and Stark began to scan the energy.

"What are you doing Stark?" Fury asked, walking into the room.

"Small experiment," Stark said. "Oh look, it's all ionized particles and light rays. It's a laser with electricity."

"Sweet," William said.

"That's not what I meant," Fury said. "You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract."

"We are," Banner said. "The model's locked, and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile." He pointed to a screen behind Fury.

"Yeah, then you get your cube back," Stark said. "No muss, no fuss." He looked to a screen behind him as it beeped, and a small window running his hacking program displayed a set of files labeled Phase 2. "What _is_ Phase Two?"

Just then, Rogers walked into the room, setting down a large gun loudly. "Phase Two is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons. Sorry, computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related tot he Tesseract," Fury said. "This does not mean that we're making-"

"I'm sorry Nick," Stark interrupted, standing as his screen opened a blueprint model for a missile with the Tesseract's energy in the warhead. "What were you lying?" He spun the screen toward them.

"I was wrong, Director, the world hasn't changed a bit," Rogers said.

"I could have told you that," William said. "No matter who's in power, the only thing they truly fear is losing that power. So they make more powerful weapons than the next guy so that they can protect their power. Or, if they're smart, they higher me to kill the next guy instead."

"You're not helping," Rogers said as Natasha and Thor walked in.

"Did you know about this?" Banner asked her.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Natasha asked somewhat politely.

Banner laughed humorlessly. "I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."

"Loki is manipulating you," Natasha said.

"And you've been doing what, exactly?" Banner countered.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," Natasha said.

"Yes and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy," Banner said.

"Loki's not manipulating just one of you," William said. "He's making sure that _none_ of you can work together, making it that much easier for him to kill you all."

"I think you mean 'we,'" Stark corrected.

"Nope," William said. "See, I'm not a part of your team. I'm being payed to do a job, not play Boy Scout with Captain America and the Tin Man. I'm also not held back by a fear of killing like the rest of you, so I'm not afraid of Loki."

"Can we get back on topic, please?" Banner asked. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of him," Fury said, pointing at Thor.

"Me?" Thor asked.

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town," Fury said. "We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor said.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you?" Fury asked. "And you're not the only threat."

"Valid point, "William said.

"The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled," Fury said.

"Like you controlled the cube?" Rogers asked.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies," Thor said. "It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"A higher form?" Rogers asked.

"Humans versus aliens," William translated.

"You forced our hand," Fury said. "We had to come up with something."

"A nuclear deterrent," Stark said. "Because that always calms everything right down."

"You're one to talk, Iron Man," William said. "You claimed to _be_ a nuclear deterrent."

"I wasn't a nuke," Stark defended himself.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark," Fury accused.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep-" Rogers began.

"Wait, wait, wait, hold on," Stark said. "How is this now about me?"

"I'm sorry," Rogers said. "Isn't everything?"

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor said as Rogers and Stark continued to argue.

"Excuse me, did we come to _your_ planet and blow stuff up?" Fury asked.

"You treat your champions with such mistrust," Thor argued.

"Are you boys really that naive?" Natasha asked Thor, who wasn't listening. "SHIELD monitors potential threats."

"Captain America is on threat watch?" Banner asked.

"We all are" Natasha said.

"Wait, _you're_ on that list?" Stark asked. "Are you above or below angry bees?"

"Stark, so help me God, if you make one more wisecrack..." Rogers said.

"Threat!" Stark said. "Verbal threat. I feel threatened."

"Show some respect," Rogers said.

"Respect what?" Stark asked.

William rolled his eyes, ignoring their arguing, which became little more than background noise, and walked over to the scepter, picking it up and focusing, willing it into a staff, the scepter's handle extending. Then, he slammed the butt end on the ground, making a loud report and getting everyone's attention.

"Thank you," William said. "Now, you're giving me a headache with your arguing, everyone shut the fuck up."

"Put that down, now," Fury ordered.

"Or what?" William asked. "You'll act like target practice again? Sorry. Not scared. Back to the important subject. Look at yourselves. This is exactly what Loki wants. You're all about to come to blows with each other, meanwhile, whoever Loki passed off the Tesseract to is probably almost wherever they're going to open the portal. We have more important things to discuss than SHIELD's nukes, which are months away, even _with_ the Tesseract, which they currently don't have."

"You need to put that scepter down," Fury warned.

"I don't think I will," William said. "You see, I've been getting a headache since I got within ten feet of this thing. It's interfering with my powers. And yet, while holding it, the headache's gone. It's like my powers are reacting to it."

"It's possible," Banner said, pinching the corners of his eyes. "You powers are energy-based. A more powerful energy may unbalance your own."

"Does this have anything to do with the Tesseract?" Fury asked.

"No," William said. "Who said it did?"

"Fury just wants his cube back so he can finish his bombs," Banner said.

"You need to step away," Fury said.

"I'd say Banner's the most calm one in the room besides me," William said, leaning back on the desk the scepter had been resting on, leaning it against his shoulder.

"Why shouldn't the man let off a little steam?" Stark asked.

"You know damn-well why," Rogers said. "Back off."

"Oh I'm starting to want you to make me," Stark said.

"And we're right back to square one," William said.

"Put the scepter down," Natasha said, aiming a gun at him.

"Put the gun away," Olivia said, holding a P99 to Natasha's head. "No one's killing him but me. I've earned that right by having to deal with with him constantly."

"Take off the suit and what are you?" Rogers was asking Stark.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," Stark listed.

"Oh, I am _so_ having a party with you," William said, putting the scepter back in its place. "Assuming I'm allowed."

"Sure," Stark said. "Long as we all survive this mission and you don't kill anyone at the party."

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you," Rogers said. "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself."

"Is that a problem?" William asked. "It's worked out pretty well for me and Olivia."

"Didn't your organization turn on you, kill your master, and drive you both into hiding and poverty?" Natasha asked.

"Don't be a cunt," William said.

"You're even worse than Stark is," Rogers said, turning on William. "You _and_ Olivia. None of you three are the ones to make the sacrifice play. To lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire," Stark said.

"Seconded," William agreed.

"Motion carried," Olivia added.

"Always a way out," Rogers said, smiling in agitation and annoyance. "You know you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero?" Stark asked. "Like you? You're a laboratory experiment Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

"Put on the suit," Rogers challenged. "Let's go a few rounds."

Thor laughed. "You people are so petty, and tiny."

"You're not that much bigger than us, Thor," William said. "You just swing a heavier weapon."

"Yeah, this is a team," Banner said sarcastically.

Fury turned to him. "Agent Romanoff, would you escort Doctor Banner back to his-"

"Where?" Banner asked. "You rented my room."

"The cell was just in case-"

"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't!" Banner said. "I know. I tried."

Everyone stared at him.

"I got low," Banner explained. "I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth, and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good. Until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk." he picked up the scepter, seemingly without realizing it. "You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

"Doctor Banner," Rogers said, as Fury and Natasha both prepared to unholster their pistols. "Put down the scepter."

Banner looked down at the weapon in confusion for a moment before the monitor scanning for the Tesseract suddenly began to ring like a phone, pulling up a map.

"We got it," Stark said.

"Sorry kids, you don't get to see my party trick after all," Banner said, putting the scepter back down and walking to the monitor.

"You've located the Tesseract?" Thor asked.

"I could get there fastest," Stark pointed out.

"No, all of us need to go," Rogers said.

"The Tesseract belong on Asgard," Thor said. "No human in a match for it."

"You're not going alone!" Rogers said, grabbing Stark's arm as he turned to leave.

"You gonna stop me?" Stark asked.

"Put on the suit, let's find out!"

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man," Stark said, getting in Rogers' face.

"Put on the suit," Rogers growled.

"Oh my God," Banner said, staring at the monitor for a moment before looking over to Stark.

Suddenly, just as William moved to see what Banner was looking at, an explosion ripped through the floor of the lab, launching everyone, Banner and Natasha being launched out through the window and down into a maintenance area, which William followed them into immediately after slamming his back into the edge of the window.

* * *

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	9. Chapter 9

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

* * *

Strike

William groaned, rolling onto his back and immediately regretting it. It wasn't broken, he didn't think, but it definitely felt close.

"Coulson, initiate defensive lock down in the detention section, then get tot he armory," Fury ordered over the wireless communicator earpieces he'd given them all. "Romanoff?"

Romanoff gasped in pain off to William's left, then reported that she was okay. "We're okay, right?" She was looking between William, who hadn't moved again since getting onto his back yet, and Banner, who was clearly struggling to hold the Hulk in.

William looked over at her, seeing her foot was trapped under a massive pipe, and groaned, pushing himself up and grabbing a long metal rod from the ground off to the side. "This is going to hurt."

He slid the rod under the pipe and she nodded, then shouted in pain as he leveraged it up off of her leg. She pulled it free as soon as she could and he let the pipe fall before helping her up, then hurrying to Bruce's side.

"Come on Bruce," William said. "Don't let him win. You're stronger than him. You're smarter. You've learned to stay in control. You can do this."

Bruce groaned, voice growing deeper rapidly. "Run!"

"Natasha, go!" William said. "It's probably Barton with a strike team."

Natasha nodded and ran for a stairway, climbing out and hurrying away. Then, Banner staggered backward, falling off the catwalk they were on and crashing to the ground before transforming fully. Fear flooded William. He had heard of the Hulk. A massive monster of green flesh, super strong muscle, and unbridled rage. But to be standing well within killing distance of him was definitely not something William had ever wanted to do. Hulk roared, grabbing a large cylindrical object from the floor, breaking it free of the cords and pipes it was connected to, the lights going out instantly and hot steam screaming from one of the newly-separated pipes. William launched himself off the catwalk just before the massive piece of metal exploded into it, demolishing the catwalk. William landed in a roll and took off at a sprint, the Hulk roaring and exploding after him.

Hallway after hallway they sprinted before reaching a long straight stretch with metal struts forming a sort of tunnel of doorways, for reasons William couldn't begin to imagine. He swore. Without corners, he couldn't possibly keep ahead of the Hulk. But, he sprinted forward anyway, pushing himself as fast as his exhausted, aching legs, throbbing back, borderline tachycardia heartrate, and burning, oxygen-starved lungs could carry him. It still wasn't fast enough, and as he ran, the Hulk chased him, the doorways seeming to bend and break around him like a fine mist. Then, the Hulk swept him aside into a massive machine, skidding to a stop beside a shutter and roaring. William gasped and wheezed for breath after the impact with both Hulk's hand and the metal object he'd hit, but just as the Hulk took a step forward, Thor crashed into him, smashing him through the shutter and into a hangar.

William felt relief shoot through him and slumped to the ground continuing to gasp and wheeze and waiting for his pulse to slow to a marginally safe level. He was _so_ done playing the hero. The next time the Hulk wanted to kill Natasha, or any of the others, he was welcomed to it. William was _definitely_ not getting in the Hulk's way again. After a few minutes, he forced himself up to his feet and turned, running for the detention level. He had to stop Loki from escaping. If Loki escaped, he'd lose his paycheck.

After a few minutes, he reached the hallway toward the detention level just in time for a pair of men in full SHIELD gear, including face masks and helmets, to aim their M4s at him. Then, a spray of bullets crashed into both of them, killing them almost instantly. After a moment, Olivia stepped out, holding an AUG in her right hand with her P99s on her thighs, and a Heckler & Kotch G36 slung across her back.

"New toys?" William asked.

"A few of them," Olivia said. "Your powers holding up?"

"Always," William said. "My back's a different story."

Olivia nodded, turning and heading for the detention area, William following quickly, forming himself an energy bow and arrow this time. After several corners, they reached the detention level, only to find Coulson lying against the wall with a stab wound through his chest, just below his heart, and the cage gone, along with Loki.

"Shit!" William swore. "Now what?"

"He went that way," Coulson said, looking to a hole in the wall, directly ahead of where an odd weapon in Coulson's lap was pointing. "Turn left."

"Thanks Coulson," William said. "You hang in there, alright?"

"I'll do my best," Coulson said.

William nodded and he and Olivia ran to the hole and turned left, finding themselves in a maintenance shaft. They ran quickly and found a door that had been left open, slipping through it into a hangar. At the far end, Loki was getting on a jet with several troops in full gear. However, before they could leave, William sent an explosive arrow into the jet's engine, destroying that engine. The troops spun instantly, they and Olivia opening fire as Olivia and William ran for cover. William sent an arrow into one's chest, just as Olivia hit another with a spray of bullets. Then, a massive blue energy blast exploded into the chunk of metal William was taking cover behind, slamming it into him and launching him backward. He groaned as he rolled off of his back, Olivia grabbing him by the arm and dragging him into cover again while spraying an endless stream of bullets from her AUG.

"You alright?" Olivia asked.

"Terrific," William grunted. "Really tired of being hit by flying metal today."

After a moment, he pushed himself up, reforming his bow and sending an arrow into the floor in the middle of two of the remaining troops, the arrow exploding and killing both. The last stood, only for a hail of bullets to greet him, dropping him again. William turned to Loki, only to see him wave out of the back of a Jet a second before it rose out of view. He and Olivia sprinted after it, but it was already too far to realistically shoot down.

"Dammit!" William swore.

"There goes five hundred thousand dollars," Olivia groaned.

"I should have used the first arrow to take his legs off," William grumbled.

"Yeah, that would have been helpful," Olivia agreed. "Not that I should expect that level of intelligence from you, _ever_."

"Well at least I killed more than one soldier!" William snapped.

"You wouldn't have if I hadn't killed those two in the hallway!" Olivia countered. "Of course, if I'd realized they were about to kill you, I would have waited!"

"What a shock," William snorted. "The cunt is still a cunt. I wish you'd died in the initial explosion."

"I wish you'd died when Bullseye shot you!" Olivia said.

"I wish I'd let bullseye shoot you!" William snapped.

"I wish Master had been smart enough to get rid of you!" Olivia spat.

"I wish we…" he stopped, swallowing hard.

He wanted to say it. He really did. But it wasn't the time for them to have _another_ deathmatch. And he couldn't afford to have the second most useful person, behind himself, too angry at him to work together with everyone else.

"Forget it," he said, turning and walking away. "This is pointless. We have a job to do."

He could feel her staring at him as he walked back to the maintenance hatch, but after a few minutes, she was walking along just behind him, and he was trying not to imagine all the places she could put a bullet to make him suffer without him even knowing she was about to.

* * *

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	10. Chapter 10

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

* * *

Preparing

William groaned as the medic inspected his back.

"Nothing broken, but you've got several contusions and deep muscle bruises along your spine and ribs," the medic said. "You've also got a mild concussion. I can give you some Ibuprofen-"

"Just give me a shot of morphine," William said. "I've got a job to do and I need to be able to run to do it."

The medic watched him for a moment before sighing and injecting him with morphine. "Don't go to sleep until the morphine wears off. And try to avoid any more blows to a head. The next might kill you."

"Will do," William said, walking out of the room and toward the armory.

As he reached it, Barton glanced at him. "I heard you led the Hulk away from Nat so she could escape. That takes balls."

"Loyalty to my employer," William said. "That's all."

"Even so," Barton said. "You may have saved her life."

"She's Agent Romanoff," William said. "I doubt it was that serious."

Barton nodded. "So, everyone else is suiting up for a fight. You got combat gear? Or you gonna rock a sweatshirt and a neck gaiter again?"

William chuckled. "Well, I _am_ partial to my sweats, especially since it makes stealth missions easy. However, in this case, I have something else in mind."

He knelt, opening a container of gear he'd asked permission to use from Fury immediately following Loki's initial capture. He dropped his sweatshirt, leaving his tight, short-sleeved, black Under Armor shirt made of that stretch synthetic material that was always comfortable, then pulled out a black, sleeveless vest with dragon skin body armor inside of it, pulling it on over his head and flexing and twisting, making sure it didn't restrict his movements. Next, he pulled out elbow and knee pads, then a pair of black gloves with small pieces of black steel along the outside and the backs of the fingers, allowing him to punch a lot harder, and designed to lessen the impact to his hands. Next came a pair of black steel-toed boots. Then, finally, a black half-mask to cover his nose and mouth, one which contained an optional air filter for poisonous gasses, which he could turn off and breathe as easily as if he weren't wearing it. He kept the mask in his hand and grinned at Barton, who nodded approvingly.

"Not bad," Barton said. "Tactical, functional, and stylish. I'm actually kind of impressed."

"Thank you," William smirked. "Now if only Olivia could die in a gloriously agonizing hail of gunfire, my life would be complete."

"You really do hate her, don't you?" Barton asked.

"I do," William nodded. "She's a cunt, and everything she does pisses me off. Anyway, I'm going to go steal us a jet."

He held a hand up in farewell and walked up to the hangar, stepping onto a jet, only for the pilot to turn to him.

"Hey, you're not authorized to be in here," the pilot said.

William smirked, raising a hand and forming an energy dagger, the blade held up to the pilot's throat. "This is my all-access pass. I think you'll find I _am_ in fact, authorized to be here."

The pilot swallowed hard, nodding. "Of course. It's all yours."

"Stop terrorizing the man," Rogers said. "We're taking the jet. Get off."

The pilot nodded as William let the knife fade, turning to Rogers, finding Natasha and Barton behind him, Olivia walking over, pushing a cart loaded with an M240B, a sniper rifle, and a Browning M2 .50 caliber heavy machine gun.

"Got enough toys?" William asked.

"You never know what you'll need until you need it," Olivia said, rolling the cart past him.

"Fair enough," William shrugged, closing the door. "Where we off to?"

"New York," Rogers said as they all sat down, Barton piloting the jet out of the helicarrier. "Loki took the cube to Stark Tower."

"That's a bit rude," William said. "And Stark?"

"He's flying on ahead," Natasha said. "Thank you, by the way. For getting me away from Banner."

"Until you pay me, you have my loyalty," William said. "Unless you haven't payed me because you're just trying to drag out the contract. Then we'll have problems."

Natasha nodded. "Don't worry about that. As soon as we stop Loki, you'll get your paycheck."

William nodded and settled in for a long flight.

* * *

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	11. Chapter 11

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

* * *

Army

William stared out the window. The city was a battlefield already. The _entire_ city. The top of Stark tower, which was now missing the "K" in Stark and had a damaged "R", was firing a massive blue beam of energy into the sky, the beam ending at as massive portal that had blue smoke-like energy around it and space on the far side. Through the portal came flying scooter-like vehicles with three dark-grey-skinned aliens on each, one flying with a pair of arm-like steering controls in the front of the fliers, and two on the back with what looked like bladed energy rifles, at least if William was seeing them through his binoculars properly.

William's gaze shifted back to the beam and his brow furrowed as he once again felt the energy in him begin to stir, his powers seeming to grow excited. "I guess Loki was serious about an army after all."

Barton flew the jet through the city, taking a street Tony told them to and when Tony flew past in front of them, Natasha opened fire with the jet's minigun, destroying a dozen fliers that were chasing Tony, any that survived breaking off and flying around the city again, blasting anything and everything in bombing runs using their rifles and guns attached to the fliers. They flew up Stark Tower to where Thor was fighting Loki, but Loki instantly blasted the jet's left rotor. William and Olivia both instantly strapped themselves in as the jet began to plummet toward the ground, Barton struggling to keep it under control. Rogers, on the other hand, simply held on to the ceiling.

Finally, they plowed into the ground and skidded to a stop, everyone instantly unbuckling and scrambling out of the Jet, William helping Olivia grab all of her weapons on the way. As they got out of the jet, however, they stopped as something above them let out a cry like that of a whale. They stared up at the portal as a gigantic eel-like creature flew through, covered in thick metal plates, the thing roaring as it was free of the portal. The thing was a hundred feet long and fifteen feet tall with a half-dozen armored fins along its sides, and once it was down between the buildings, Chitauri began to burst out of its sides, crashing into the sides of buildings and stopping, dozens of them.

"Stark are you seeing this?" Rogers asked.

"Seeing," Stark said. "Still working on believing."

William sent an arrow up at the creature and it exploded against an armor plating, only for the creature to not be harmed at all. "Shit."

"Where's Banner?" Stark asked. "Has he shown up yet?"

"Banner?" Rogers asked.

"Just keep me posted," Stark said.

"What do we do here, Rogers?" William asked. "We need a plan."

Just then, a small group of fliers shot overhead, raining blasts along a street, Loki riding on the lead flier.

"We've got civilians trapped up here," Stark reported as he flew past a building on their right.

Rogers looked toward the people in the street Loki was flying along, but just as he was about to go help, energy blasts began to hit around them, Natasha and Olivia opening fire at the Chitauri forming up in the street on their opposite side from the civilians.

"We've got this, go," Natasha said as she, Clint, and Olivia took cover behind an overturned taxi, Olivia still firing with her AUG.

"You think you can hold them off?" Rogers asked.

"Captain, it would be my genuine pleasure," Barton said, pressing a switch on his bow's grip, a small tray with his arrowheads rotating before one was attached to an arrow's shaft. He drew it and fired, and when the arrow hit one Chitauri, it fired a vertical ring of tiny projectiles that killed two more.

"In a few minutes, Olivia will have killed them all," William said. "Just go."

Rogers nodded and turned, leaping off of the bridge they were on as Loki and the other fliers began a second pass. Clint turned and ran to a bus where several civilians were hiding off to the side and Olivia glanced at William.

"I think it's time for me to get serious, don't you?" Olivia asked.

"Wait, for real?" William asked. "You're not serious yet?"

Olivia smirked before her face screwed up in concentration. Then, five more of her stepped out of the original, William's jaw falling open as his eyes practically fell out of his head. Each of the new moved to her tray of weapons, one of them picking up the Browning M2, one picking up the M240B, and one picking up the sniper rifle. The last two drew their G36 and P99s respectively.

"You and me are going to get the civilians out of that building," the one with the pistols said to William.

"Me and her will stay here and help you, Agent Romanoff," the one with the G36 said, gesturing to herself and the one with the AUG.

"We'll go set up around the city to bottleneck the portal and pick off the ones flying around," the sniper said as the two machine gunner ran off, the sniper following.

William turned to the building Stark had reported hostiles in and sent an arrow with an energy rope trailing it into the roof, then yanked the rope and was sent streaking up at the window on the top floor, the Olivia with the pistols running for the ground floor. As William smashed through the window, three Chitauri just inside spun toward him, only for him to slash through all three with an energy sword.

"I gotta say, Olivia, you really are a freak," William said over his communicator earpiece. "That power of yours is borderline overpowered. What happens if one of you dies, though?"

"Don't know," Olivia responded, the earpiece auto-filtering out the gunfire on her end so he could hear her. "Not planning to find out."

William chuckled, running through the building and slaughtering Chitauri as he went, taking the stairs down one level at a time, checking it quickly while escorting the civilians. The second level he searched, a Chitauri leapt at him from the side, only for him to spin, his sword reshaping into a staff, which he slammed into the underside of its jaw before forming a spearhead and driving it down into it. Then, he turned and hurled the spear into another Chitauri, the spear knocking it out a window before exploding as a flier hit it. The next level down, he kicked the door in and instantly fired an arrow with a dozen smaller arrowheads forming a sort of ball on the end into the air in the middle of the large room, the smaller arrows bursting out of the main one, which faded, then slaughtered the Chitauri in the room while leaving the civilians unharmed. The next floor, as William entered the room, a Chitauri grabbed him, pinning his arms to his sides, only for spikes of white energy to erupt from the Chitauri's back before fading, the Chitauri collapsing. Another took a swipe at William and he formed himself gauntlets and boots of energy, beginning to beat the Chitauri to death before finally forming a sword and splitting it up the front.

Just as he finished with that one, Olivia stepped into the room, shooting the other three Chitauri who were just stepping into it. Then, the two of them ran outside, the couple dozen or so civilians they had saved together fleeing, following Barton's directions to the subway where the Chitauri wouldn't be able to shoot them. William and Olivia rejoined Natasha, Barton, and the other two Olivias just as both of the Olivias with rifles ran off. A moment later, Rogers returned, slamming into a pair of Chitauri shield first, Olivia killing them with a spray of bullets as soon as they stopped bouncing. Then, lightning exploded down on the Chitauri in front of them, killing them all just before Thor landed heavily in front of them.

"What's the story upstairs?" Rogers asked.

"The power surrounding the Cube is impenetrable," Thor said.

"Thor's right, we gotta deal with these guys," Stark said.

"It's a barrier of pure energy, right?" William asked, remembering the video feed Stark had sent them of the barrier around the portal machine bouncing his repulsor blast back at him. "Maybe I could syphon it away, or adjust my powers to match it, that way I can get a weapon through."

"It's possible," Stark said. "But we still have to deal with Loki's army first."

"The longer the portal's open, the more army we need to deal with," William pointed out.

"How do we do this?" Natasha asked.

"As a team," Rogers said.

"I have unfinished business with Loki," Thor said.

"Yeah?" Barton asked. "Well, get in line."

William heard a pair of machine guns finally open up and looked up, seeing twin streams of tracers flying up into the portal, not a single bullet missing the portal, meaning there were none to fall on civilians. At the same time, a sniper began to very carefully pick off grounded Chitauri.

"Loki's going to keep this fight focused on us, and that's what we need," Rogers said. "Without him, these things could run wild." Rogers turned to them, beginning to gesture with his hands as he spoke. "We got Stark up top. He's gonna need us to..." he stopped, turning as Banner slowed to a stop behind him on a borrowed, or stolen, motorcycle.

"Perfect timing," William said. "The gang's all here."

"So, this all seems horrible," Banner said as they all walked over to him, Olivia reaching up and duplicating a couple of Barton's arrows to replace those he'd already used.

"Horrible?" William snorted. "This is great. It's the perfect excuse to let loose and kill anything that moves."

"Would you mind walking forward, then?" Olivia asked.

"Don't start," Rogers said. "Stark, we got him."

"Banner?" Stark asked.

"Just like you said," Rogers confirmed.

"Then tell him to suit up," Stark said. "I'm bringing the party to you."

"Oh tell me he's joking," William groaned.

Just then, Stark rounded a corner, the massive eel-like creature following, roaring as it smashed through the corner of a building. William groaned, Thor growled, readying himself, and Olivia sighed.

"I-I don't see how that's a party," Natasha said.

Stark flew low, getting the creature to start flying along the road, and shot past them within seconds. Banner glanced at them then turned, walking toward the creature.

"Dr. Banner!" Rogers said worriedly. "Now might be a really good time for you to get angry."

"That's my secret, Captain," Banner said. "I'm always angry."

Then, in the amount of time it took for him to turn and throw a punch, he'd completely transformed, his fist exploding into the creature's snot. The creature shoved the Hulk backward about twenty feet before Hulk stopped, the creature flipping into the air over him, its armor breaking apart and falling off as it went. Then, Stark fired a missile into its side, and when the missile exploded, it blew the creature apart. William grabbed Olivia just before the explosion and hurled himself and her both behind a bus for cover, Barton took cover behind a taxi, and Rogers pulled Natasha to himself, kneeling down and holding his shield over them. When William looked around, there was a massive chunk of metal where he and Olivia had been, and a chunk of metal had bounced off of Rogers' shield.

The Chitauri that had been rising on the creature and had all bailed out before the explosion roared angrily down at them all.

"Thanks," Olivia said. "Now let go of me."

"Hm?" William asked, realizing he _was_, in fact, still holding her around the waist. "Oh, sorry."

They walked out of cover, rejoining the others, now including Hulk and Stark, as Hulk roared back at the Chitauri. At the same time, more and more Chitauri began to flood through the hole, the other Olivias unable to stop them all, including multiple more of the eel creatures.

"Guys," Natasha said, watching the Chitauri spread from the portal.

"Call it, Captain," Stark said.

"Alright, listen up," Rogers said. "Until we close that portal up there, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof, eyes on everything, call out patterns and strays." He pointed up to a tall building off to the side. "William, you're going with him. You work well from a distance with those arrows. Stark, you've got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back, or you turn it to ash."

"Can you give me a lift?" Barton asked.

"Right," Stark nodded, walking over. "Better clench up Legolas."

William snorted as Stark took off with Barton.

"Thor, try and help Olivia bottleneck that portal," Rogers said. "Slow them down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up."

Thor nodded, spinning his hammer before flying away.

"You, me, and Olivia stay on the ground, keep the fighting here," Rogers said. "And Hulk..."

Hulk turned to him.

"Smash," Rogers said, pointing upward.

A wide grin split Hulk's massive green face and he shot into the air, exploding into the side of a building and began to slaughter Chitauri. William glanced at the beam, again feeling his powers grow excited, or maybe agitated.

"What about the portal?" William asked. "Should I try to get through it?"

"Not yet," Rogers said. "For now, help Barton."

William nodded and turned, using a string arrow to get himself to the roof of the building he and Barton were assigned to. Just as he landed, Barton advised Stark find a tight corner to take advantage of the fliers being unable to pull sharp turns, all while firing an arrow almost backward and destroying a flier without looking.

"I'm so glad you and I never actually had to have an arrow fight," William said, firing a scatter shot arrow as he had inside, hitting a half dozen fliers.

"You seem to be doing pretty well," Barton said, both shooting several more fliers.

"Dude, you just hit a moving target without looking," William said.

"Heads up!" Barton said suddenly.

William turned, seeing a pair of fliers moving to ram him. He smirked, swinging his bow down to the right, as he stepped to the right. The bottom arm of his bow sliced through the flier and pilot Chitauri both, the flier exploding against the roof. Then, William spun in a circle, turning his hand over the other way before slashing in the same arc, this time using the upper arm of his bow to slash the two Chitauri who had been on the back of the flier but jumped off before it reached him. As soon as he finished, he pulled and arrow back and sent it into the air, the arrow exploding just as five fliers were within range, destroying them all.

"Yeah, I'm not having a melee fight with you," Barton said. "I'll stick to arrows." He sent an arrow past William's head into a Chitauri pilot before the arrow released a ring of projectiles, the projectiles destroying two other fliers as the one the pilot was flying hit a third.

"Nice call," Stark said suddenly, having finished with the fliers chasing him. "What else you got?"

"Thor's taking on a squadron down on Sixth," Barton said.

"Isn't he supposed to be bottlenecking?" William asked, glancing up at the portal, which was still being partially, though ineffectively, bottlenecked by Olivia's duplicates.

Just then, a Chitauri landed behind him, just in time for a sniper bullet to turn its head into paste.

"We're even for you pulling me out of the way of that exploding worm," Olivia said. "Oh, and there are Chitauri sneaking up your building's walls

"Fair enough," William agreed, using a scattershot arrow to clear the Chitauri trying to climb up the sides of the building. "That all of them?"

A sniper round hit one just below the edge in front of him.

"All I can see," Olivia said.

"Barton, can you handle yourself alone?" William asked.

"Yeah," Barton nodded. "Get going."

"Captain, I'm heading for the tower," William said.

"Natasha will meet you there," Rogers said.

"Keep her," Olivia said. "My rifle duplicates are almost there."

"Alright," Rogers said. "Go."

William sprinted tot he edge of the building and leapt off, landing on a flier just after the two arms of his bow split the two gunner Chitauri in half across the chest, then slashed out to the left, killing the pilot. He instantly let his bow fade and grabbed the controls, accidentally pressing a button and sending an energy blast into another flier. He grinned, beginning to blast any an all fliers that flew in front of him. Two began to shoot at him from behind but Stark blasted them for him before moving to help Rogers and Natasha, then going to clear Barton's wall for him. William passed an eel that Hulk and Thor were riding on while killing Chitauri, then Hulk drove a chunk of armor into the eel's back and Thor slammed his hammer down on it. William smirked. They really weren't a bad team after all.

He steered toward Stark Tower and leapt off the flier just as a blast hit it, the flier crashing down in a cluster of Chitauri that were bearing down on the two rifle-wielding Olivias. William shot a rope arrow into a building, the energy rope slowing him down enough for him to land in a roll. Then, the stood and sprinted to the two Olivias, all three running into the tower. The tower was free of Chitauri, so the only bad part about the run up its stairs _was_ the run up its stairs. By the top of it, William and the Olivias were ready to collapse, gasping and panting for breath and more staggering than running.

"Fuck you...for having...such a...tall tower...Stark," William panted.

"You could have asked for a lift," Stark pointed out.

"Fuck...yourself," William said, staggering to the machine.

"Don't touch it!" Dr. Selvig said. "There's an energy barrier protecting it! You can't get through."

"Not me," William said, forming an energy sword. "But maybe this."

He reached out and when the sword touched the barrier, ripples flew across it as he felt the energy in his blade rebound into itself, fighting against itself and throwing heat and steam like white phosphorous, which melts through steel beams in seconds.

"If I can damage the machine enough, maybe it'll shut down," William said, focusing on the feel of the energy his sword was failing to break through, trying to make his own energy feel the same.

"You're trying to change your energy projection to the same signature?" Selvig asked. "That might work. I built in a safety to cut the power source. Originally I made it to work with the energy of Loki's scepter, but if you can mimic the energy...you might just have to make contact with the base."

"Good," William said, just as his sword suddenly turned light blue and stabbed through the barrier. "Got it! Anybody hear me? I'm through the barrier! I can shut the portal down."

"Do it!" Rogers ordered.

"No, wait!" Stark said.

"Stark these things are still coming!" Rogers said.

"I got a nuke coming in," Stark said. "It's gonna blow in less than a minute."

William swore. "Waiting on you, Stark."

"Copy that," Stark said. "I know just where to put it."

"Stark, you know that's a one-way trip," Rogers said.

"Olivia, head down and grab Loki's scepter, then come back up," William said. "I don't want him getting his hands on it and blasting me while I'm waiting for Stark."

Both Olivias nodded and turned to run toward the stairs again.

"Sniper me has you covered up top," Olivia's voice said over the communicator."

"Understood," William said. "I'll let your machine gunner duplicates know when to cut their fire."

"Copy," Olivia said.

Just then, Stark's chest dinged against the edge of the roof on the way up.

"Jesus, Stark!" William said, flinching. "Cutting it a bit close, aren't you!?" His powers throbbed suddenly and he grunted. "Fuck! I can't hold my energy in an altered signature much longer! Hurry up Stark!" He looked up, seeing Stark nearing Olivia's flying bullets. "Cut it now, Olivia!"

The bullets stopped and Stark shot through the portal. William grit his teeth, struggling to hold his energy, the blade inside the barrier beginning to slowly grow thinner as the edges of it began to change back to normal and be forced back by the barrier.

"I can't hold this any longer!" William grunted, barely down to a finger's width of blade inside the barrier.

"Close it," Rogers said.

William grunted in effort, shoving forward and stabbing his blade into the machine where the beam was being projected through. Instantly, the beam ended just as the energy of William's sword being forced back into itself finally exploded, launching him backward. He crashed down hard, just as the Olivias returned, both stopping and staring at him.

"So you finally bit it, huh?" the Olivia with the AUG asked, walking over and kneeling. "Bout fucking time, you fucking prick."

"Don't get your...hopes up...cunt," William groaned, opening his eyes and pushing himself up, looking down at the burns covering his torso. "Damn. That's probably going to scar. Did Stark make it back?"

"He's back but..." Rogers trailed off.

Then, suddenly, the Hulk let out a roar and Stark's voice shouted in surprise and fear before gasping for breath.

"What the hell?" Stark asked. "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me."

William smirked, trying to stand, only to collapse again. The Olivias both slung their rifles and knelt, helping him up and toward the stairs. Then, they headed down the stairs to the living room where Loki was lying in a crater, waiting for the others to join them while they watched Loki so he couldn't escape.

* * *

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	12. Chapter 12

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

* * *

Employment Extension

William smiled as he quickly counted his money. Beside him, three Olivias were counting hers as well. However, despite her advantage, William was faster at counting because he could use his energy to tell what the bills were and how many there were a bill fold at a time, each fold only taking three seconds. He could also check for marked bills that way in exchange for another second each. Olivia was looking for marked bills as she went. Finally, they both finished, both of them counting a million each, none of the bills marked. Both looked up at Fury as the extra Olivias fused with the main one again.

"That's double the amount we agreed on," William said. "Why?"

"Consider it a bonus," Fury said. "Or you could consider it a proposition."

"You want to keep us on?" Olivia asked. "Why?"

"You're extremely useful, you proved you both have some semblance of honor, and to be blunt, I'd rather pay you handsomely and have you working for me than to risk someone else paying you to kill me. I'm not sure my luck will get me through another assassination mission by you two."

"That's fair," William nodded. "So, what's the next job?"

"Security," Fury said. "We've got a couple of projects we want the two of you to oversee. You'll be going to the same place, so try to get along."

"How much are we getting payed?" William asked.

"A million dollars a year," Fury said.

"We'll play nice," William said.

Fury nodded, holding out a slip of paper, which Olivia accepted.

"You're kidding me," Olivia said.

"I kid you not," Fury said.

"Area Fifty One?" William asked. "Of all places, you're sending us to the most famous alien coverup conspiracy, in order to defend it from anything that tries to steal the alien tech that's actually there?"

"Yes," Fury said. "On the bright side, I'm giving you both permission to collect one souvenir each."

"What, an alien weapon?" William asked. "You do realize I can create any weapon I want with my powers, right? Hell, before I learned control, I was able to fire blasts from my hands. Then my master taught me control and precision. What would I need an alien gun for?"

"There are more than guns there," Fury said. "You'll see when you get there. Just remember, you have permission to claim anything not currently being studied as your souvenir."

William shrugged. "Fuck it."

Fury gave them directions to an airport where SHIELD was waiting to take them to their new job. A few hours of flying later, they were given the tour and saw all the potential souvenirs. There were dozens of guns of all kinds, many of which SHIELD still didn't know how to make work, there were suits of armor from different races that no one seemed to know how SHIELD actually got ahold of, there were even different living specimens of aliens. After a few minutes of trying to decide, what they wanted, Olivia decided on a sniper rifle that fired green blasts of energy, but which had to be charged before firing, being able to fire twenty shots on a single charge, each charge taking ten seconds.

"You can't use your powers to give that infinite ammo," William pointed out.

"That's true," Olivia mused, then turned to the head scientist, who had given them the tour of the facility they were supposed to be guarding. "Is there any way you can make a sort of generator that charges this endlessly so it doesn't have to recharge?"

"Frankly, we only have a handful of those types of weapons, and we've had no success with trying to figure out how they work as it is," the scientist said. "Upgrading it in any way is, at least for now, impossible."

William hummed thoughtfully. "Stark could do it."

"Probably," Olivia nodded. "He'd probably appreciate the challenge."

"Time to call in a favor?" William asked.

Olivia nodded and handed it to the scientist. "Send this to Tony Stark. Ask him to create a generator to keep it permanently charged."

The scientist nodded and passed it off to one of his underlings, along with the instructions, and that scientist left immediately. As they did, William and Olivia followed the head scientist to the barracks where they were given a room to share.

* * *

"This is probably the most boring job I've ever had," William said.

"Agreed," Olivia nodded. "The least they could do is put us on a strike team."

"Or allow us to train," William grumbled. "I can't believe they yelled at me for using a shooting range to practice my archery."

"To be fair, you _did_ breach fifteen biohazard containment rules to do it," Olivia pointed out. "Not that anyone should be surprised you fucked something up that bad."

"You're no gem either, you know," William said, giving her a dirty look. "At least I'm useful without having to carry weapons around with me."

"If you want to call always needing to be saved being useful, then yeah, very useful," Olivia said.

"As I recall..." He stopped himself, then took a long, heavy breath. "Sorry."

Olivia blinked in surprise, staring at him. "What?"

"I'm not repeating it," William growled. "I'm sure the scientists can get you a hearing aid if you ask nicely."

Olivia rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I'll get a hearing aid the day you ask them if they have a way to make you look less plain."

William's eyes narrowed, but he managed to bite back his retort. Instead, he turned back to the window they were watching out of and fired a blast of energy out of his palm, killing a bird and making it fall onto the ground and set off a motion sensor. Instantly, the radio crackled to life.

"Movement," the voice reported.

"I'll check it out," William all but snarled. "Alone."

"Understood," the voice replied and went silent.

William walked out to the bird and knelt down, taking several heavy breaths to calm himself before reaching up to his earpiece. "Just a bird."

"Copy," the voice said.

He walked back to the room with Olivia and sat down against the wall silently. Olivia glanced at him before turning back to the door. However, after about ten minutes of silence, she finally sighed heavily, turning back to him.

"I'm sorry, alright?" Olivia said. "I didn't mean to piss you off. I shouldn't have insulted you over your looks. Why do you get that bent out of shape about it, though?"

William stared at the ground in silence for nearly a minute before speaking. "Because I'm jealous."

Olivia frowned. "What do you mean?"

Again he didn't answer right away. "I trained for years before we found you. I was the best in the organization, besides our master, and everyone knew it. And then we find you. Six months later, not only are you suddenly the best in the organization, but you're also the person everyone wants to talk to. You trained with Master once ever three days, and I trained with him every day until I could barely walk, and yet I was only barely able to keep up with your skill and power. The only advantage I had over you was that I was more discreet about my jobs than you, and even then, it wasn't enough. Still people were saying that you were the best. Your powers were more useful, your powers were more practical, and your learning curve put my own to shame. And then, to top it off, you're beautiful. You could put a supermodel to shame. On the other hand, I'm only average at best, both in appearance and in natural skill and powers. I thought that if I could just train hard enough to beat you, to prove I'm the best again, it wouldn't matter to me so much, but I could never surpass you, no matter how hard I trained. No matter how much I progressed, it seemed like you and I were always even. And then, in New York, I realized just how wrong I was. We were never even. You had surpassed me a long time ago."

"You mean my ability to duplicate myself?" Olivia asked, frowning.

"Yes," William nodded. "I can _maybe_ beat one of you in a fight, as long as we don't start at sniper distance. But against five of you? You'd kill me in a second."

"Maybe not," Olivia said. "All you'd have to do is kill one of me."

"You said you didn't know if that would kill you or not," William said.

"I lied," Olivia said. "I was using a duplicate of myself to cook once, years ago, and the duplicate cut its finger. When we fused again, my finger was still cut. And unlike when I duplicate bullets or knives or anything, I can't just make duplicates of myself fade out of existence. I'd probably erase myself as well if I could. I have to fuse back together with them, which means gaining any injuries the others acquire."

"Still," William sighed. "I can't beat more than one of you at a time. And given how fast you learned to fight, and how quickly you got a handle on your powers, I'll never be able to match you. I'm never going to be anything but average."

Olivia sighed. "I suppose that explains why you went from being welcoming to me to suddenly hating me."

"You didn't exactly help matters, you know," William said. "Every time I tried to be nice, right from the moment we gave you a home, you were a bitch back."

"Well, what the fuck did you expect?" Olivia snapped. "I had just been tortured, raped, and..."

Both fell silent for a long few minutes.

"I'm sorry," William said, Olivia again staring at him in confusion. "I wish we had found you sooner. I'm sorry we didn't. I'm sorry that we couldn't save you both. I'm sorry that we couldn't stop that from happening to you. And I'm sorry for every time I've used it as an insult or to hurt you. I'm sorry I've been such an ass all this time."

Olivia stared at him before shaking her head and smirking. She opened her mouth, only to falter. Her face sunk slightly before she sighed heavily. "Thank you. It...Shockingly, it means a lot to hear you say that. I forgive you."

William nodded, frowning as a foreign, unwelcome warm feeling flickered to life inside his chest. What was wrong with him? First, he stopped himself from insulting him, then he felt ashamed of himself for having done it before. He had actually stooped so low as to apologize for it, and now, of all things, he was actually relieved she had forgiven him. There had to be something wrong with him.

* * *

William sat bolt upright, a bow and arrow forming instantly, the shining energy lighting up the room, only to find no attacker. However, he had definitely woken up because of Olivia's voice. He looked over at her, seeing a troubled expression on her face as she rolled over, her cheeks glistening in the flickering light of his bow. She whimpered, more tears leaking from her eyes and William sighed, letting his bow fade and flicking on his bedside lamp before walking over to her. He sat beside her and shook her awake gently. She sat bolt upright, letting out a strangled, sobbing scream, but he caught her in a hug. After she had taken a moment to adjust from her nightmare back to reality, she began to sob, clinging to William, who stroked her back gently, holding her and rocking slightly until she had calmed down.

"They can't hurt you anymore," William murmured soothingly, knowing full well that her nightmare, as always, had been about her torture with her sister.

"They hurt me every time I remember or dream about it," Olivia almost whimpered, still close to tears. "They hurt me every time I think about my sister." She tightened her arms around him for a moment. "Thank you for waking me up."

"You're welcome," William said, gently laying her back down and pulling the sheet up over her. "Rest. I'll wake you if you start to have a nightmare again."

Olivia nodded and drifted off again within seconds. William sat beside her for a long few minutes, gently running his hand over the hair on top of her head before standing and walking to the bathroom. He closed the door silently and relieved himself before flushing and turning to the mirror. His eyes fell to his reflection's shirt, and stared for a few seconds. Finally, he swallowed hard before pulling his shirt up to expose his chest. He stared at the dark bruise spread over his chest, centered over his heart, with jagged spikes of bruised skin reaching outward from it. It was about four and a half inches wide and circular, minus the spikes where it was spreading outward. He sighed as he let his shirt fall but stared at his reflection's chest. The mark had appeared a week after New York, and had been spreading since then. By his estimation, judging by the severity of the pain he felt in his chest when he used his powers, and the feeling of being sick that followed extended use of them now, he probably only had another couple years at best before he died. Maybe that was why he'd spent the last six months feeling so much like a pussy and finding himself inexplicably trying to be nice to Olivia. He sighed, shutting the light off and heading back to bed. He didn't care. All he needed was to kill Bullseye. If he could do that, he could die content.

* * *

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	13. Chapter 13

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

* * *

Reassignment

"You're being reassigned," Fury said. "You're useful for defense, but there's a strike team that could use you. They need to take down a terrorist threat without causing an war, or implicating SHIELD. You'll be working with Rogers, Romanoff, and Rumlow for this."

"We don't need them," William said. "Between the two of us, we can handle it."

"They're coming," Fury said. "Romanoff will be helping Olivia from a distance using sniper rifles. I understand that Olivia has a new toy to test out anyway, now that Stark's gotten around to upgrading it, and has taken a break from threatening terrorists and blowing up oil tankers. You, William, will be taking Rogers and Rumlow into the compound with you. I've arranged to have a special uniform made for you. Consider it your souvenir."

"I don't want a superhero costume, Fury," William said.

"Tough," Fury said. "While SHIELD is paying your fees, you'll wear what I tell you to wear. And you're lucky I'm not putting you in a tutu."

Olivia snorted. "You should have."

"Romanoff said the same thing," Fury said.

"I bet she did," William grumbled. "Send us the information. We'll start packing."

"Good," Fury said. "I got you an apartment in New York. You'll drop your things off there, then meet Romanoff for pickup outside."

"Understood," Olivia nodded.

William hung up and they quickly packed up their things, then headed outside to where a Quinjet was already waiting.

* * *

"Standing by for the first shot," Rogers reported.

"Hang on boys," Natasha responded. "We're almost in position."

"Could you take a little longer please?" William asked. "I'd rather not make it back to our own country in time for breakfast tomorrow."

"Keep up the attitude and that can be arranged," Olivia retorted.

"Yeah, we'd just have to move at your speed," William growled.

"Well, if speed is a problem, you might want to hope that fancy costume of yours is laser proof," Olivia countered.

"Are they always like this?" Rumlow asked.

"Yes," Rogers and Natasha both said.

"He-"

"She-"

"-started it!"

"We're in position," Natasha said. "Setting up now."

"Understood," Rogers said. "Whenever you're ready."

William formed himself a bow and arrow, pulling the bow back, then glanced at his new uniform. It was a formfitting black armor that flexed like it was thick leather, but was only about slightly heavier than his normal clothing. It was all black, except for light grey lines running along the bottom of his chest from the sides, then curving down to the bottom of his sternum in a pair of curved lines, like an arrow head, and included boots, knee and elbow guards, gloves, and matched the half-mask he still had from New York.

"Ready, in three...two...one..." Natasha counted down.

Then, she and Olivia opened fire, Natasha's rifle suppressed and using subsonic rounds and Olivia's rifle firing quietly. The flashes of green light as Olivia killed someone were too fast to see the direction of, but it _did_ give away the fact that the compound was under attack immediately, so shouting began. Williams nodded to Rogers, who entered first, shield raised and ready to block any bullets that came their way. The moment they were in, William's arrows and Rumlow's SCAR began to slaughter any terrorists not currently lying on the ground with a hole through their heads or torsos. Several sprinted into a small building off to the side, so William sent an arrow into it, which exploded on impact with the wall. Then, they finally reached the main building and Rogers drew his pistol and smashed through the door with his shield, instantly blocking a hail of bullets. As soon as the reloading began, the three of them charged, rapidly dropping everyone in the room before continuing. A few rooms later, they found the target and he turned to run, only for William to use an extra-wide arrow to take his head off.

"Excessive," Rogers said.

"Undeniable results," Rumlow said. "Let's get out of here."

"Reinforcements inbound," Olivia reported. "My heavies will stall."

"Range?" William asked, climbing to the roof using a ladder on the top floor as a pair of heavy machine guns roared to life on the cliff where Olivia and Natasha were sniping from.

"Two hundred," Olivia said.

William formed his bow and drew an arrow back, only for it to compress into a long, thin needle-like light spike about the length of his arm but half the width of his finger. He aimed carefully before releasing the arrow. It streaked away from him, straight as a laser, since energy can't be affected by gravity, unless he wanted his arrows to be. A moment later, it exploded against the lead vehicle, erupting into a massive white sphere of energy for the briefest of seconds before that gave way to a fireball, black smoke billowing up from it. The other two vehicles swerved around the first to opposite sides and both of Olivia's guns focused on one as William sent another compressed arrow into the other. As its explosions went off, he sent one final arrow into the last truck and it erupted into a fireball just like the other two.

"Is that all of them?" William asked.

"For now," Natasha said. "Get back to the jet quickly and come pick us up."

"On the way," Rogers said as the three of them ran back to the jet, Rogers piloting it to pick up the other two.

* * *

"Target is a mobile satellite launch platform, the Lemurian Star," Rumlow explained as the entirety of the strike team headed toward the most recent job.

This would be William and Olivia's fourth. Their first with the full team, and only their second with Rumlow.

"They were sending up their last payload when pirates took them," Rumlow continued. "Ninety three minutes ago."

"Any demands?" Rogers asked.

"Billion and a half," Rumlow said.

William snorted. "Not worth it to be in SHIELD's crosshairs. It's an annoying place to be."

"Agreed," Olivia said.

"Is that a normal ransom amount?" Steve asked.

"No," Natasha said. "It's only that steep because it's SHIELD's."

"So it's not off course, it's trespassing," Rogers said, referring to Natasha's explanation that that was why the pirates took the ship in the first place.

"I'm sure they have a good reason," Natasha said.

"You know, I'm getting a little tired of being Fury's janitor," Rogers said.

"Relax, it's not that complicated," Natasha said.

"It's always that complicated," William said. "Our first mission as Avengers was us being Fury's janitors, too."

"Loki would have come through even if SHIELD _hadn't_ been working on the Tesseract," Natasha said.

"Maybe," Olivia shrugged. "Or maybe he would have never known it was there."

"How many pirates?" Steve asked Rumlow to get back on track.

"Twenty five," Rumlow said, bringing up a roster, then pulling up the leader. "Top mercs, at least for this area, led by this guy. Georges Batroc. Ex-DGSE, Action Division. He's at the top of Interpol's Red Notice. Before the French demobilized him, he had thirty six kill missions. This guy's got a rep for maximum casualties."

"Hostages?" Rogers asked.

"Oh, mostly techs," Rumlow said, pulling up the crew roster. "One officer. Jasper Sitwell." He pulled up a picture of a bald white man in glasses and a nice suit. "They're in the galley."

"What's Sitwell doing on a launch ship?" Rogers asked, checking his gloves and wrist-mounted communicator. "Alright, I'm going to sweep the deck and find Batroc. Nat, you kill the engines and wait for instructions. Rumlow, you sweep aft, find the hostages, find the life-pods, get 'em out. Let's move."

"Hold on," William said. "What about me and Olivia?"

"You're with Natasha, Olivia's with Rumlow," Rogers said.

"Got it," William nodded, all of them preparing to deploy.

"Secure Chanel Seven," Rogers said, radio checking.

"Seven Secure," Natasha responded. "So, you do anything fun Saturday night?"

"Well, all the guys from my barbershop quartet are dead, so, no, not really," Rogers smiled.

"Coming up on the drop zone, Cap," the pilot reported, Rogers hitting the switch to open the bay doors.

"You know, if you ask Kristen out, from Statistics, she'd probably say yes," Natasha said.

"That's why I don't ask," Rogers said, clipping his helmet on.

"Too shy, or too scared?" Natasha teased.

"Too busy!" Rogers called back to her before jumping out of the plane, his shield on his back.

"Was he wearing a parachute?" one of the team members asked Rumlow.

"No," Rumlow chuckled. "No he wasn't."

"Parachutes are for women and pussies," William said, checking the wings of his quick-detach wingsuit.

"You know you can't actually land with that without using a parachute, right?" Olivia asked, pulling her parachute on over her assault rifles and laser sniper, which she could apparently use up close because it had a holographic sight that zoomed from zero to sniper range according to her needs.

"Did you forget who I am?" William asked. "I can use my power to cushion my landing."

"Good point," Olivia said. "Try to make a pretty stain when you die."

"I'll be sure to watch your chute not open," William said.

"Alright you two, time to go," Natasha said.

William turned and sprinted to the door, leaping out of it and spreading his arms and legs instantly, his wings catching the air and sending him hurtling through the air. He fought to keep his breathing calm, despite the adrenaline, and angled himself to streak down at the ship where he could see Rogers fighting a dozen mercs. As he shot toward them, he flipped at the last second, sending a burst of energy from the top of his head to keep himself from rocketing into the air again and his wings slowed him until his feet collided with a merc behind Rogers, one who had a G36 aimed at Rogers, flattening him to the ground and shattering his ribs and spine, killing him.

"Thanks," Rogers said as William pulled off his wings.

"Any time you want me to save your life, just ask," William said. "I collect favors as a currency."

Rogers rolled his eyes, smirking. "Of course you do."

The others all landed around them, taking off their parachutes, and William and Olivia glared at each other as they found the other had also survived.

"What about the nurse that lives across the hall from you?" Natasha asked Steve. "She seems kind of nice."

"Secure the engine room, then find me a date," Rogers said.

"I'm multitasking," Natasha said, vaulting over a railing, William just behind her.

Olivia drew her suppressed FN 5.7 and looked to Rumlow.

"You're going to do this with just a pistol?" Rumlow asked. "And a normal one?"

"Firstly, there's nothing normal about an FN Five Seven as a pistol," Olivia said. "It's designed to go through body armor better than a rifle, but it's a pistol. Secondly, I'll get more kills with this pistol than your team will as a whole."

"Bullshit," Rumlow said.

"Challenge accepted," Olivia said. "Let's go."

She turned, walking away quickly, and Rumlow shook his head and followed with the rest of the Strike Team.

"How many girls have you suggested now?" William asked. "A dozen?"

"At least," Natasha nodded.

"I think there might be a reason he keeps refusing," William said.

"What, you think he wants to be alone?" Natasha asked.

"No," William said.

"You think he's got a girlfriend and didn't tell anyone?" Natasha asked.

"Well, how well do you actually know him?" William pointed out. "And not from SHIELD spying, I mean from interacting with him and getting to know him."

Natasha paused at the engine room, considering it for a moment. "I really don't, I guess. Just surface level stuff that was all in the reports and dossiers anyway."

They headed in and Natasha headed down the stairs first, reaching the top just as a merc hung up the phone.

"Hey sailor," Natasha smiled, then kicked the side of his knee, wrapped her grappling cable around his neck from her belt, then flipped backward over the railing, pistols in-hand, only to stop, seeing William standing at the bottom already, having killed all of the mercs inside on the way down. She grappled down to him, the cable strangling the guy at the top, then disconnected the cable from her belt, giving William an exasperated look.

"I was going to do that," Natasha said.

"Gotta be quicker than that," William shrugged. "Come on."

The two of them hurried to the bottom floor of the engine room,, finding one patrolling ahead of them. William formed a pair of energy knives and began to close in quickly.

"S.T.R.I.K.E. in position," Rumlow reported in a whisper.

"What's your status, Natasha?" Rogers asked.

"Hang on," Natasha whispered back.

William reached the merc and drove a knife through the back of his head, killing him instantly, then set him down gently. A second later, someone stepped out ahead of them and Natasha fired a pair of shots into his chest from her own suppressed pistol, dropping him. A third stepped out just in time to have William's arrow drive itself through his heart and lungs, and dropped. Then, someone that William definitely didn't want to see stepped out. He wore a completely black full-body suit with a pair of white eyes, and had a pair of double-edged, jagged blades extended from the backs of his wrists out past his hands.

"Who is that?" Natasha asked.

"He's from me and Olivia's Organization," William said, raising a hand to his communicator. "Olivia, Ripper's here."

Olivia swore.

"Is the engine room secured?" Rogers asked.

"He's the last one up and about," William said. "Carry on. We'll deal with him."

"Understood," Rogers said. "Rumlow, go ahead."

"There's something I need to take care of," Natasha said. "Do you need me for this?"

"No," William said, forming himself a pair of energy daggers in reverse grip. "Go do whatever mission Fury assigned you."

She nodded and turned, running away quickly. As she did, William and Ripper both charged. Ripper slashed first and William deflected it off of his blade, then slashed at Ripper, only for Ripper's other blade to deflect it. William jumped and spun, slamming a kick into the blade Ripper blocked with and slammed that arm into his chest, hurling him away.

"You've improved," William said. "And you finally learned how to run a charge through your blades to block mine."

"That's right," Ripper said, standing, but staying in a low crouch with his arms spread, as was usual for him. "And now, I'm going to kill you!"

He shot forward, slashing at William quickly and William shifted his daggers into shields slightly bigger than his forearms, deflecting several slashes before spinning and ducking under one, slamming a windmill kick into Ripper's jaw. Ripper went down hard, only to twist and slam a kick of his own into William's chest, sending him staggering backward. Ripper shoved himself off the ground and lunged, stabbing at William, but William deflected it off his left shield, transforming his right into a blade similar to Ripper's, but had straight edges and continued directly to the point after about eight inches. Ripper deflected the blade with his own, but William spun around Ripper as Ripper moved to stab him. As William spun, his left arm's shield also transformed into a blade and he drove it up into Ripper's back, puncturing his heart and left lung, as well as severing his spine.

"Game over," William said, then ripped his blade back out.

Ripper collapsed on the spot, and William groaned, staggering backward and falling into a seated position against the wall. His torso flaring agonizingly with every beat of his heart, and when he raised a hand to it, his armor was warm over his heart. He grit his teeth, trying to will the pain away. His time was almost up. The bruise had spread over most of his torso in front and back now. Using his powers had begun to become agonizing recently, and as if that wasn't enough, every time he did, he started to physically heat up, as though his powers were actually threatening to make him explode.

Finally, he took a deep breath and stood, running to the deck of the ship in time to see Rogers and Natasha climbing onto the Quinjet. William sent an arrow into the roof if it, keeping the energy connected to his hand, then yanked, launching himself across the distance and into the Quinjet. As soon as he landed, Rogers closed the door and they took off again. William looked over at Rogers just as he shot Natasha a dirty look, then walked up to the front of the jet away from her.

"What happened?" William asked.

"I had an extra mission of retrieving data from the ship," Natasha whispered to William. "It was on a need-to-know basis only, so when Rogers found me, he was mad I didn't tell him and that I missed the rendezvous with Rumlow. I was also a bit of a smartass about it when he tried to scold me, and I ended up giving Batroc the chance to escape, so now Steve's mad at me. Understandably. Don't...tell anyone about the mission."

William nodded and sat down off to the side, one hand pressing into his still-throbbing chest. Olivia sat beside him after a moment and raised an eyebrow.

"Did he give you that hard a time?" Olivia asked.

"He actually learned to throw a surprisingly decent kick since we left, I won't lie," William said. "Nothing I couldn't handle, but still not a pleasant surprise."

Olivia snorted. "You've gotten weak, it seems."

William rolled his eyes. "Like you're one to talk. I'm still useful without carrying around weapons."

Olivia glared at him but fell silent, both remaining quiet the rest of the flight back.

* * *

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	14. Chapter 14

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

* * *

Trouble

William smirked as Fury sat down in his Tahoe, only to stop as Olivia pressed her gun to his head for a second once the door was closed.

"See, what I keep asking myself is, 'Why would the man who hired Batroc, also hire Ripper?'" William said. "Drive."

Fury pulled out of the garage and onto the street, Olivia keeping the gun hidden while they drove through SHIELD HQ's front gate checkpoint.

"I assume Batroc was a cover for Natasha pulling whatever data you needed her to get without anyone knowing about it," William said. "That's all well and good, but what about Ripper? Ripper has a reputation for being excessively lethal. He has a policy of being one of no more than four people to walk out of a building alive when he's on a job, and he's always the only one to leave in one piece, so why was he there and not fighting with the pirates?"

"Maybe someone offered him enough to make him do as he's told to the letter," Fury suggested.

"Not a chance," Olivia said. "Ripper was the kind of person who wants to kill as many people as he can as publicly as he can in order to increase people's fear of him. He would be the worst possible choice for defending a ship alongside pirates. He'd just kill everyone, pirates and hostages alike. He also works exclusively for cash up front. Which leads me to think he must have been promised something beyond priceless, or he'd have to have had a personal reason to be there."

"Killing me and Olivia wasn't a personal enough reason for being there, and it was bugging me earlier that it wasn't," William said. "But then, a thought occurred to me. What if he didn't board with the pirates? What if he was there earlier? Ripper may be a glutton for slaughter, but when he's not doing that, he's actually a master of stealth and hiding. So what if he was there before the pirates? What if his goal was actually to hijack something SHIELD had planned, something that involved satellites."

"What, so he could watch TV for free?" Fury asked.

"You tell us," Olivia said. "What were the satellites for?"

Fury sighed. "A new defensive system called Project Insight. It uses the satellites to ID potential threats around the world, then three Helicarriers use state of the art long-range cannons to take them out with unparalleled precision. Project Insight will be able to take out a thousand threats a minute. Which reminds me, I need to make a call." He pressed a button on the dash.

"Activating communications encryption protocol," a synthetic male voice responded from the car's speakers.

"Open secure line zero-four-zero-five," Fury said.

"Confirmed," the car's system responded before dialing.

"This is Hill," a feminine voice said as a round picture of a white woman's face appeared in the upper left corner of the screen with a small box displaying the information on her SHIELD ID, then a box with a soundwave line under the ID picture.

"I need you here in D.C.," Fury said. "Deep shadow conditions."

"Give me four hours," Hill said.

"You have three," Fury said. "Over." He disconnected and glanced back at Olivia and William. "Deep shadow means that I suspect SHIELD has been compromised. I expect you two haven't been payed to kill me yet, or you would have shot me rather than ask me about Ripper. That data I had Agent Romanoff retrieve was secured and encrypted, and my clearance was rejected when I tried to access it, but when I asked who's authority had my clearance rejected, it listed myself as blocking myself."

William frowned as they slowed to a stop at a light. "That's not a good sign." He looked to the side and saw a cop car beside them, both officers staring at Fury.

"Wanna see my lease?" Fury asked, turning his head back to the front. The officers' siren whooped once and they started driving just before the light turned to green.

"Reverse, and floor it!" William said instantly as he saw the cop driving look back at them in the mirror.

Fury did as instructed, and a second later, a second cop car shot past them, its passenger side mirror snapping off on the nose of Fury's Tahoe and smashing the headlight before the cop car smashed into a light pole and stopped, the pole folding over on it. Fury swore, twisting around to see where he was going as the first cop car pulled a U-turn and sped after them. Fury swung the Tahoe around and put it in drive, speeding down a side street as sirens wailed behind and ahead of them.

"Olivia, you're going to need a couple of guns," William said.

"Here," she said, handing him her G36 without a magazine.

He turned instantly and rolled his window down before leaning out and focusing his energy into small blasts the size of bullets, which would actually cycle the weapon, spraying the cop car behind them, killing both and hitting a wheel, flipping the cop car and sending it crashing and rolling off the road. William dropped back into the Tahoe and looked around as Olivia readied her laser sniper, a second suddenly in the passenger seat with her AUG.

"I'd say this is a pretty clear sign you were correct, Fury," William said.

"Well, aren't you a real Sherlock Holmes today!" the assault-rifle-wielding Olivia snapped, leaning out of the passenger seat window and spraying a pair of cop cars ahead of them, killing one cop but making both cars swerve outward and flip.

William and the other Olivia both leaned out of the two back windows, both firing backward at a cop car and a black van containing a police officer raid team that had both been following them since they escaped the attempted ambush at the first intersection. Ethan dealt with the cop car while Olivia killed the driver of the van, then shot out one tire, flipping the van and sending it bouncing and rolling into a subway entrance.

"Nice!" William commended as they dropped back in. "I'll admit, when it comes to guns, you've got me beat."

"You're not doing too bad," Olivia said, glancing at him just as he sucked in a breath, holding a hand to his chest. "What?"

"It's nothing," William lied. "Just heartburn from lunch. I didn't eat a very good meal to get bounced around in a car chase."

"At least you ate," Fury said, cutting the wheel sharply and skidding around a corner, narrowly missing a cop car coming from the side, the Olivia in the back shooting both of the police in it instantly.

"DC Metro police dispatch shows no units in this area," the Tahoe reported.

"Warn them to stay away, SHIELD authority!" Fury ordered.

"Confirmed," the car reported.

Just then, bullets began to slam into the back of the SUV, all four of its occupants flinching and looking back at the four police cars chasing them, each with an officer leaning out of the side and holding an M4. William and Olivia waited until they began to reload before leaning out and opening fire on the cars, making three crash before the Olivia in the front suddenly yanked both back in, Fury already rolling up the windows. Then, a split second after both Olivias and William had buckled themselves in again, Fury drove between two trailer trucks, scraping the sides and scaring the drivers, making them both jerk the wheel away and crash, blocking the road behind them.

"Initiate Vertical Takeoff!" Fury ordered.

"Flight systems deactivated," the car reported.

"By who!?" Fury demanded.

"System ID logged as Director Fury, Nicholas, J.," the car reported.

"Oh, I am _really_ starting to piss me off," Fury growled. "Call Maria Hill!"

"Confirmed," the car reported.

Suddenly, a cop leaned out of a car ahead of them and fired a grenade launcher. It exploded in front of the Tahoe and knocked them off course and through the ground floor of a building, thankfully one that was mostly glass, then continued on a different street. However, the windshield was now covered in chips and hard to see out of, so Fury turned on a camera feed from what looked like the grill.

"Communication systems damaged," the car reported.

"What!?" Fury shouted. "How!?"

"The explosion severed a communication line," the care reported.

"Shit!" Fury shouted. "What still works?"

"Air conditioning is fully operational," the car responded.

"Wow," William said. "A smartass car."

"Traffic ahead," the car reported.

"Give me an alternate route," Fury ordered.

"Traffic alert on Roosevelt Bridge," the car reported. "All vehicles stopped. Seventeenth Avenue clear in three blocks, directly ahead."

Fury shook his head slightly and floored it toward the packed road ahead of them. They rear-ended a silver truck and shove it out of the way.

"Doesn't this car have any built-in guns for this kind of thing?" Olivia demanded.

"It's got one in the center console in case someone gets through a window," Fury said. "Otherwise, no."

"Lovely!" William growled, his teeth clenched against the pain in his torso.

Just then, a cop sprinted up beside them, the Tahoe having had to slow down as they tried to ram their way through three blocks of heavy traffic, though they managed to block the cop cars chasing them. As the cop opened fire at them, Olivia cracked her window and stuck one of her personalized P99s out through the crack, beginning to spray and killing the cop. Another opened fire at them from behind, so Fury threw the Tahoe into reverse and floored it, sandwiching the cop between the Tahoe and the cop car behind it. Then, he floored it forward and finally smashed through the last of the traffic, spinning the sedan they hit into another dismounted cop and hurling him through the glass wall of a bus stop. Then, they swung onto another road just as more cop cars arrived.

"Are there any real DC police officers here yet?" William asked.

"None reported in the area," the car reported.

"Good!" William and both Olivias said, all three leaning out, the Olivia in front folding forward down the side of the truck and aiming upside down as the three of them opened fire on the police cruisers chasing them. Within seconds all of them had crashed and all three climbed back in. Just then, two cruisers swung onto the road from either side, beginning to bounce Fury back and forth between them by ramming his sides.

"Hit the brake!" Olivia snapped.

Fury did so, and the tail end of the car on the right caught his nose, the car spinning into the other, both of them spinning into an intersection just in time for an orange trailer truck to hit them both from the left. Fury turned down that street and sighed.

"Get me off the grid!" Fury snapped.

"Calculating rout to secure location," the car responded.

However, just then, someone stepped into view ahead of them, wearing a all black, a black half-mask, black goggles and raising some kind of gun with a black disk on the bottom.

"Olivia, absorb your duplicate!" William said, leaning out the window and firing an arrow at the man.

As Olivia absorbed the one in the passenger seat and collected her two assault rifles, the man leaned out of the way of the arrow and fired, the disk launching forward and bouncing off the road before passing under the Tahoe. Olivia yanked William into the vehicle just before the disk exploded, flipping the Tahoe forward past the assassin and onto its roof, where it skidded for nearly twenty seconds before slowing to a stop. William groaned from where he'd landed and looked out of the car at the assassin, who was walking toward them quickly. Then, he set his hand on the ground and focused. Two trails of energy spread from his hand under the three of them, Olivia and Fury both unbuckling. Then, William sent the energy down into the sewer tunnel below them before spinning the energy in a circle, cutting a hole and dropping all three of them. They all stood instantly and began to run, leaving the hole behind rapidly. However, after a second, William's torso gave a particularly nasty throb and he fell to his knees, letting out a strangled cry of pain and clutching his torso as he burned.

"William!?" Olivia asked, kneeling beside him and setting her hand on his shoulder, only to instantly let out a startled cry and yank her hand back. "What the...you're so hot you actually burned me!"

"Well that's...a twist," William forced out, grinning. "Never been...the hottest...in the room...before." He looked up at Fury. "Get to...Rogers. Have him meet us...at the mall."

Fury nodded and turned, running away quickly.

"What's happening?" Olivia asked.

"SHIELD's been...compromised," William said.

"I don't give a shit about them," Olivia said. "What's going on _with you_? Why are you so hot? Why are you in pain?"

William sighed, turning to sit against the wall as the pain began to fade, allowing him to talk normally again, though he was still breathing hard from it. "It's been happening since New York. Since I mimicked the Tesseract's energy signature. Using them too much seems to make them start to overload. It starts to hurt and it heats my body up. It's been getting worse lately. I don't have much longer."

"How long?" Olivia asked.

"About three months, by my last estimate," William said. "But it shortens every time I use it, so probably less, now."

Olivia swallowed hard. "You asshole! I'm supposed to be the one to kill you, not your own powers!" She pulled out a P99 and pressed it to his head, but he could feel it trembling.

He smiled. "It's funny. Ironic, funny. All these years I've been an assassin, all these years I've risked my life in order to take others for money, and yet now...I'm afraid. I don't want to die."

Olivia stared at him before sighing and putting her gun away. "You won't. We'll figure something out. You're not dying until after we get revenge on Bullseye, remember?"

He smiled and nodded. "Yeah. That was what we agreed on."

Just then, Olivia's phone began to ring. She answered it instantly and her eyes widened.

"He just left, why?" Olivia asked, then frowned, eyebrows furrowing. "How much?" She was silent for a long while before speaking. "Double it and you have a deal."

She hung up and sighed. "Alexander Pierce just called. He's agreed to pay me ten million dollars to kill Fury."

William frowned. "So now we have to choose. Employer, or friends."

"But _was_ SHIELD the employer?" Olivia asked. "Or was Fury?"

William frowned for a moment before nodding. "Shoot Fury."

"What?" Olivia asked.

"You know where to put it," William said. "Two shots to a specific spot and he'll be dead to the world, except to us."

Olivia frowned. "Even for me, that's not an easy shot."

"But it's Fury's only chance," William said. "If you don't do it, that assassin that just stopped us will."

"What about you?" Olivia asked.

"I'll be fine," William said. "I'll meet you and Rogers just like we planned. Once I rest a bit, I'll get my strength back and the pain will fade."

Olivia nodded. "You can't stay here. That assassin might come after you."

William smiled. "You almost sound worried."

"I've told you before," Olivia said dryly. "I'm the only one allowed to kill you. Beyond that, I don't give a fuck about you."

William smiled, nodding. "I remember that chat. Go on. Before someone else takes the shot."

Olivia nodded and turned, sprinting away, trying to catch up with Fury.

* * *

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	15. Chapter 15

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

* * *

Agreeing

William watched Natasha as she stared at Fury's body. Olivia had taken the shot, but had then had to run from the same assassin that had attacked them in the street. He had a metal arm, and when Rogers went after both him and Olivia in time to save Olivia from him, he had caught Rogers' shield in mid air, then hurled it back so hard Rogers had barely caught it before vanishing. William had arrived in time to "attack" Olivia, only for her to escape. Fury was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, and now Olivia wasn't answering William's messages. He wasn't sure if Fury was actually dead or not, but right now, it didn't matter. What mattered was that even Natasha believed he was dead. She was staring down at him in silence and only barely able to keep herself from crying. And Hill was in tears.

"I have to take him," Hill finally said.

Natasha nodded before forcing her pain to turn into rage. She turned and stormed out of the room.

"Natasha!" Rogers called out, following her into the hallway.

"Why was Fury in your apartment?" Natasha asked, rounding on him.

Rogers sighed heavily and shrugged. "I don't know."

"Cap," Rumlow said, walking over from behind him. "They want you back at SHIELD."

"Yeah, give me a second," Rogers said.

"They want you now," Rumlow said.

William frowned. Rogers was next.

"Okay," Rogers said.

Rumlow turned and walked away as Rogers turned back to Natasha.

"You're a terrible liar," Natasha said, turning to leave.

"Hey Nat," William said, Natasha stopping and turning to him, one eyebrow raised. "You have time to help me buy a new car? Since I finally get to go kill Olivia, I want to enjoy the ride there, just in case it doesn't end the way I'd like."

Natasha watched him for a moment before nodding. "Sure. Follow me."

The two of them walked about thirty feet away and out of sight before Natasha stopped, returning to the corner and watching Rogers.

"Aha," Natasha said. "Interesting."

William risked glancing, seeing Rogers walking away from a vending machine that a technician was just stocking. Once Rogers and all of the other SHIELD personnel were out of sight, they walked back to the vending machine.

"There," Natasha said, pointing at a flash drive with the SHIELD logo hidden behind two packs of bubblegum. "You have change?"

William smirked and bought both packs and the flash drive, handing one of the packs of gum to Natasha and pocketing the flash drive before putting some gum in his mouth. "Let's go buy me a car."

Natasha narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously, but nodded and they left the hospital together, getting into Natasha's car. William glanced at the dash, seeing the SHIELD logo. When Natasha opened her mouth to speak, William yawned dramatically and covered his mouth. Natasha closed hers. A few minutes later, they reached a car dealership and Natasha parked before William walked inside and got some keys for a test drive. Natasha flirted with the dealer to let them drive it alone, hinting that they wanted some private time, and the dealer agreed. Once they were on the road, William glanced around, motioning for Natasha to check the glove box, trusting she'd know what he meant. She checked thoroughly, then sat up, leaving it open and set a small, square device about the size of a square of gum on the center console, the device glowing blue around the edges and emitting a high tone.

"That'll keep anyone from being able to hear what we're saying through microphones," Natasha said. "Now talk."

"SHIELD's been compromised," William said. "Olivia and I were with Fury yesterday when SHIELD contractors disguised as police tried to kill us in a car chase and shootout, then the assassin with the metal arm Rogers mentioned shot an explosive metal disk under our car and made us crash. We escaped into the sewer and Fury left to get Rogers' help and to warn him. Olivia got a call to offer to hire her to kill Fury, and she and I agreed that she should shoot him in a place that would make it easy to fake his death, because if the other assassin hot him, he'd actually die."

"Who hired her?" Natasha asked.

"Pierce," William said.

"Why should I believe you?" Natasha asked. "You're an assassin, and SHIELD was the one paying your salary."

"Fury was the one who hired us, though," William said. "That makes him our employer, not SHIELD."

"Well, I guess Olivia's not as loyal to her employer as you are," Natasha said.

"That's not true," William said. "Olivia believes in that even more than me. I don't know what happened, but I don't believe that she was trying to kill him. I'm supposed to meet up with her with Rogers soon. If she meets us there, I'll ask her what happened." He held out the data drive. "I assume this is the data you took from the Lemurian Star. Fury said it was classified and his director access was denied when he tried to access it, but that it was on his own authority."

"Red flag," Natasha nodded. "Let's get back to the hospital. Rogers is going to come back for this, and we need to be there when he arrives."

William nodded and they returned to the dealer, thanking him for giving them some privacy and promising to call to arrange payment within the next day or so. Then, they returned to the hospital to wait. Finally, Rogers returned, wearing a pair of sneakers, black sweatpants, and a dark blue sweatshirt. He stopped, staring at the vending machine until Natasha walked over to stand behind him, blowing a bubble with her gum and smiling at him in the reflection. He turned, glancing around to make sure the coast was clear before grabbing her and shoving her into an empty staff room, pushing the door closed, only for William to catch it with his foot and slip inside, then close the door behind himself, watching as Rogers pinned Natasha to the wall by her upper arms.

"Relax, we're not your enemies," William said.

"Where is it?" Rogers growled.

"Safe," Natasha said.

"Do better!" Rogers growled.

"Where did you get it?" Natasha asked.

"Why would I tell you?" Rogers asked.

"Fury gave it to you," Natasha said, reading him like a book. "I guess William was telling the truth after all."

"You knew?" Rogers asked.

"I was there," William said. "Before you, at least. And before you ask, we couldn't access it. It's encrypted."

"What about Olivia?" Rogers asked.

"She was also there before you," William said. "And I think I might know where to find her, but we'll have to move quickly. And subtly, which means you're going to need to change, Mr. Unabomber."

"What?" Rogers frowned.

"He's saying you look like you're going to go on a killing spree," Natasha said. "Come on. Let's get somewhere we can talk and get you a change of clothes."

"Why should I trust you?" Rogers asked. "Either of you."

"Fury was my employer," William said.

"And let's face it, what other options do you have right now?" Natasha asked.

"Give me one reason why I should believe a word out of your mouth, Romanoff," Rogers growled.

Natasha hesitated. "I know who killed Fury."

"Olivia," Rogers said.

"The other one," Natasha said. "The one that you stopped from killing her, and who I think also took a shot at Fury."

Rogers let go of her but didn't move away.

"Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists," Natasha explained. "The ones that do call him the Winter Soldier."

"Catchy," William said.

"He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years," Natasha said.

"So he's a ghost story," Rogers said.

"Five years ago I was escorting a nuclear engineer our of Iran," Natasha said. "Somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me." She lifted up her shirt to reveal a bullet scar. "Soviet slug. No rifling. Bye-bye, bikinis."

"Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now," Rogers smirked.

A hint of a playful smile tugged at Natasha's lips before she grew serious again. "Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried."

"So have I," William said, both looking at him in surprise. "Don't give me that look. Olivia and I were part of an organization of assassins. Someone that no one believes exists who has a perfect record is the kind of competition you try to eliminate, frequently. Except for the fact that we could never find hide nor hair of him."

"Like you said, he's a ghost story," Natasha said, holding up the flash drive.

"Well, let's find out what the ghost wants," Rogers said.

"Let's head to the mall," William said. "We can go computer shopping."

"Good idea," Natasha nodded. "Let's go."

* * *

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	16. Chapter 16

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

* * *

Tracking a Lead

"The first rule of going on the run is don't run, walk," Natasha said to Rogers, who was looking around frequently, seeming nervous.

"If I run in these shoes, they're going to fall off," Rogers said.

"I tried to tell her you needed to tie them," William said from Natasha's other side, hands in his pockets and the hood of his black sweatshirt down, where as Natasha had her hood up and Rogers was wearing a baseball cap and fake glasses. "You know, I never really appreciated how useful being average-looking was."

He had changed into his old work outfit of a black sweatshirt, a black neck gaiter that covered his ears and up over his nose, but which was currently hidden inside his collar, a tight, dark grey tee-shirt under it, a pair of blue jeans, and his Converse. He also had on the armor Fury had given him under his clothes, but he still wasn't sure how protective it was.

"It was helpful when you were fleeing from SHIELD last time, too," Natasha said.

"I _do_ seem to have a habit of being on SHIELD's bad side, don't I?" William asked.

They walked to an Apple store quickly and Natasha walked over to one of the computers.

"The drive has a level six homing program, so as soon as we boot up, SHIELD will know exactly where we are," Natasha warned.

"How long will we have?" William asked, looking out of the store and seeing Olivia watching them from an upper level.

"About nine minutes from..." she plugged in the drive, "now."

William held nine fingers in front of himself and Olivia nodded, walking away.

"You sure you trust her?" Natasha asked, not looking away from the computer.

"For now," William said. "Besides, if she wanted us dead, she could have sprayed us with one of her many guns on the way through the door."

"Heartening," Rogers said. "Are you sure she didn't just aim wrong?"

"No," William said. "I have no idea what happened."

"Fury was right about that ship," Natasha said. "Somebody was trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI. It keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands."

"Can you override it?" Rogers asked, leaning on the counter beside her to look at the screen.

"The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me," Natasha said, glancing at him. "Slightly. I'm gonna try running a tracer. This is a program that SHIELD developed to track hostile malware, so, if we can't read the file, if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from."

"Can I help you guys with anything?" a store worker asked, walking over.

He was overweight, had dirty blonde hair past his shoulders, and a beard.

"Oh, no," Natasha smiled, wrapping an arm around Rogers, who tried not to act too surprised. "My fiancé was just helping me with some honeymoon destinations." She giggled as she turned back to the computer.

"Right," Rogers smiled. "We're getting married."

"Congratulations," the guy said. "Where you guys thinking about going?"

Rogers looked back at the computer as it found the location. "New Jersey."

"Oh," the guy said.

"That poor kid," William said.

"Shut up or you won't be best man anymore," Rogers said.

"As long as I can still do the bachelor party," William shrugged.

The store employee suddenly began to give Rogers a look of recognition. "I have the exact same glasses."

"Wow, you two are practically twins," Natasha said sarcastically, typing on the computer again.

"Yeah!" the employee laughed. "I wish." He held his hands up like he was imagining Rogers as a picture. "Specimen." He stepped back and raised his ID. "if you guys need anything, I've been Aaron."

"Thank you," Rogers smiled, just as Olivia walked over.

"Times up," Olivia said. "They're inside."

"Relax," Natasha said. "I got it."

The map zoomed in to Wheaton, New Jersey, and Rogers leaned down, staring at the computer.

"You know it?" Natasha asked.

"I used to," Rogers said. "Let's go." He pulled the flash drive and they all left, joining the crowd. "Standard Tac team. Two behind, two across, two coming straight at us. If they make us, I'll engage, you three hit south escalator to the metro."

"Shut up and put your arm around me," Natasha said. "Laugh at something I said."

"What?" Rogers asked.

"Do it," Natasha said.

At the same time as he complied, Olivia wrapped her arms around William from behind, pressing her lips to the back of his shoulder. He reached back and rested a hand on the back of her head, leaning his head against hers, and the SHIELD operatives walked past them without incident, despite Rogers' laugh sounding obviously forced and fake.

"You need to work on your improv," William said as Olivia released him and stepped around beside him. "We need to split up here. You two take the escalator a few people ahead of us."

Natasha nodded and guided Rogers to the escalator while William and Olivia walked past it, then turned and walked back, getting on a few people behind them, as planned. Thanks to the closed-loop earpieces Natasha had given him and Rogers as a failsafe, he could hear their conversation.

"Kiss me," Natasha said, William seeing Rumlow coming up the escalator from below.

"What?" Rogers asked.

"Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable," Natasha explained.

"Yes, they do," Rogers said.

Natasha rolled her eyes and reached up, kissing him. At the same time, Olivia kissed him as well. William sucked in a surprised breath before returning it, ignoring the flipflopping of his stomach, the several beats his heart skipped, and the way his entire face suddenly tingled oddly.

"You still uncomfortable?" Natasha asked suddenly, yanking William back to reality.

"That's not exactly the word I'd use," Rogers said, just as Rumlow passed William and Olivia, looking off to the other side at the two SHIELD operatives on that floor.

Finally, Olivia pulled away as they reached the ground floor. "Come on. I need to find soap to wash my mouth out."

"Try being on my end," William grumbled, following her and keeping his face painstakingly neutral despite the cold feeling in his chest.

He had to be losing his mind. Or he was closer to dying than he thought. The only other explanation was that he'd actually enjoyed it, and was hurt she apparently didn't, and that option was just too ridiculous to be real. He shook his head slightly as they reached the door out and the four of them headed to the same dealership Natasha and William had visited the other day.

"Olivia, you're Rogers' girlfriend and you two are our friends," William said. "Wait in the chairs off to the right while we go buy our car."

Olivia and Rogers both nodded and William held the door open for Natasha, who smiled playfully.

"Thanks, babe," Natasha said, brushing her hand across his chest as she passed.

He smirked. She was a natural. Once they were inside, Rogers and Olivia walked over to the waiting area and Natasha and William were let into the dealer's office to wait, finding he was busy helping someone else, currently.

"So, how was your first kiss?" Natasha smirked.

"How was yours?" William countered.

"He could use practice," Natasha said. "Now spill. You went from excited by being on the run to a foul mood after the escalator. Was she bad? Does she need a mint?"

William rolled his eyes. "She's an amazing kisser. That's not what's bothering me."

"Then, what, you wanted it to be real?" Natasha asked.

"No," William said, crossing his arms, ignoring her raised eyebrow. Finally, he sighed heavily. "I don't know. Things were so much easier when we were just waiting for the chance to kill each other. I don't..." he sighed again, uncrossing his arms. "I don't know. Maybe?"

Natasha grinned. "It's progress."

William shook his head, smiling ruefully, then smirked. "Speaking of progress, have you put any more thought into why Rogers keeps refusing all the girls you suggest?"

"We have bigger things to worry about right now," Natasha said.

"What, Black Widow can't multi-task?" William smirked.

Natasha glared at him, then sighed. "Okay, fine. Yes, I've thought about it. But you didn't exactly give me much to go on. You just asked how well I knew him."

"Well, how about this," William said. "What do they all have in common?"

"They all work for SHIELD?" Natasha asked.

"Besides that," William said.

"He doesn't know anything about any of them?" She tried.

"Closer, but still no," William said.

"They're female?" Natasha joked.

William rolled his eyes. "They're not you."

Natasha frowned and opened her mouth to respond, only to be cut off by the door opening and the dealer walking in.

"Welcome back!" he smiled. "So, I've already gathered all of the forms to finance-"

"No need," William said, standing and pulling out a wad of cash. "I figured it'd be easiest to get the loan in cash and only do paperwork for one place."

"Oh, alright," the dealer smiled. "In that case, you just need to fill out this form."

William filled it out quickly, using an alias for both of them before they took the key and left the office. As they walked, Natasha wrapped her arms around him and kissed the side of his neck.

"Play along," she whispered. "I want to check something."

He smiled, wrapping his arms around her, too, and rested his cheek on top of her head, smiling contentedly. "You know, by no fault of my own, I actually kind of want to see you in a bikini."

"Down boy," Natasha smirked. "Focus on your own girl."

"Currently, that's you," William pointed out.

"Touché," Natasha said.

They walked out past the others without saying anything and Rogers and Olivia followed. Natasha and William stayed how they were all the way to the Chevy pickup truck they'd bought, where Natasha told him to sit in the back with Olivia. William nodded and tossed Rogers the key.

"Not a scratch," William said. "I just payed good money for this."

"You know, I could have just stolen one for us," Rogers said.

"Yes, but then they could report the tags," William said, climbing into the back as Natasha took the passenger's seat.

The first couple hours of the ride were silent before Natasha finally spoke.

"Alright, I have a question for you," Natasha said, looking over at Rogers. "Which you do not have to answer. I feel like if you don't answer it, though, you're kind of answering it."

"What?" Rogers asked.

"Was that your first kiss since nineteen forty five?" Natasha asked, smirking.

"That bad, huh?" Rogers asked, looking a little irritated and embarrassed.

"I didn't say that," Natasha said.

"Well it kind of sounds like that's what you're saying," Rogers said.

"No, I didn't," Natasha defended herself. "I just wondered how much practice you've had."

"You don't need practice," Rogers said.

"Everybody needs practice," Natasha said.

"It was not my first kiss since nineteen forty five," Rogers said, Natasha smiling knowingly. "I'm ninety five, I'm not dead."

"Well, that's a bit of a let down," Natasha said, Rogers glancing at her, brow furrowed in confusion. "I almost thought I was special."

Rogers rolled his eyes, smirking and shaking his head. "Right."

Natasha smiled. "Nobody special, though?"

"Believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience," Rogers said.

"Well, that's alright," Natasha said. "You just make something up."

"What, like you?" Rogers asked.

"I don't know," Natasha said. "The truth is a matter of circumstance. It's not all things to all people, all the time. Neither am I."

"That's a tough way to live," Rogers said.

"It's a good way not to die, though," Natasha said.

"You know, it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know who that someone really is," Rogers said.

"Yeah," Natasha said, suddenly seeming distracted, then frowning. "Yeah."

"What?" Rogers asked, glancing at her.

"I just..." Natasha stopped, frowning down at her lap. "It just occurred to me that...most of what I know about you is from a dossier. We're both Avengers, but...we don't really know each other."

"It doesn't have to be that way," Rogers said. "It's not that hard to get to know someone."

Natasha's frown deepened. "I'm not sure I actually remember who I am, to be honest."

Rogers was silent for a long while. "I don't know if I believe that."

Natasha rolled her eyes.

"No, I mean, I think you do," Rogers said, "you just don't realize that you do."

Natasha's frown deepened before being replaced by a smirk. "When did you get all wise and philosophical?"

"They say wisdom comes with age, so..." he trailed off and they both laughed.

After another minute, Natasha glanced back at Olivia and William, who were both staring out their windows, though William was watching her out of the corner of his eye, smirking.

"What's with you two?" Natasha asked.

"We didn't want to interrupt," Olivia said. "You and your second boyfriend seemed like you needed to talk amongst yourself for a minute without us being a part of it."

Natasha's eyebrow rose as William blinked in surprise and looked over at Olivia, then at Natasha. Natasha grinned and nodded slightly, mouthing the word "jealous" before turning back to the front.

A few hours later, they arrived at their destination, Camp Lehigh, a decommissioned Army Training Camp where Rogers said he was first turned into Captain America. After a few minutes of looking around, Natasha reported that she wasn't getting any readings of any kind, speculating that whoever sent the signal they'd tracked must have used a router to throw people off. However, Rogers began to walk toward a munitions bunker beside the barracks, stating that according to Army regulations, it was in the wrong spot. He used his shield to break the lock open and they all headed inside, Olivia holding her FN 5.7 ready and Rogers keeping his shield ready to block incoming bullets as needed. After a moment, Rogers flipped a breaker, the bunker's lights turning on a few at a time, illuminating a sort of office building set up, and a massive SHIELD emblem on the far wall.

"This is SHIELD," Natasha noted.

"Maybe where it started," Rogers said as they walked into the room, looking around.

They walked into a storage room off to the side with shelves lining the walls, which looked like they were where the SHIELD agents that worked there would have stored their personal belongings, as well as various office supplies. Off to one side, there were pictures of the founders of SHIELD.

"There's Stark's father," Natasha said.

"Howard," Rogers said.

"Who's the girl?" Natasha said, seeing Rogers staring at the picture beside Howard Stark.

Rogers didn't answer. Instead, he simply turned, walking away from the pictures to inspect the rest of the room.

"I found something," Olivia reported suddenly.

They all walked over, seeing the cobwebs clinging to one of the shelves blowing slightly in a breeze.

"Good find," William said.

"Oh, gee, just what I always wanted, to be complimented by an idiot," Olivia said sarcastically.

"Yeah, well, don't expect any more for this lifetime," William said.

"Thank God!" Olivia growled.

"Get a room," Rogers said, stepping past them and pushing the shelf aside, revealing an elevator. "If you're already working in a secret office, why do you need to hide the elevator?"

Natasha used a special system on her phone to read the pin number from ancient fingerprints on the buttons, and a moment later, the elevator dinged open. For as old as the facility was, it was surprisingly clean.

"I think I'll take the stairs," William said.

"Good luck with that," Olivia said, stepping into the elevator with Rogers and Natasha.

William grit his teeth and joined them. Several minutes of tense silence later, they stepped out into a darkened room. William could just make out several computer monitors and could tell that they were surrounded by some kind of machines, but he couldn't tell what they were. Ahead of them, there were dozens of yellow and orange lights, like a control panel of some kind, but again it was too dark to see what it was. Finally, the lights came on, revealing several ancient computer systems making a wall ahead of them several standing around them with monitors, and then dozens of them, probably hundreds, running out into the darkness beyond the light. Ahead of them, the lights he had seen were the control panel of a massive, ancient computer.

"Even as old as they are, that's a lot of processing power," William said.

"No, this can't be the data point," Natasha said. "This technology's ancient."

"Not all of it," William said, gesturing to a small black box with two small metal rectangles sticking up on one side with empty USB ports in the ends and six empty USB ports in the front of it.

Natasha stuck the flash drive in one of the two raised ports and the computer systems all around them, what William now realized had to be over a thousand, all lit up and began to power up, more lights coming on.

"Initiate System?" a distorted voice asked as the words appeared on the main monitor of the computer.

Natasha stepped forward. "Y-E-S," she typed the letters as she talked to herself, "spells yes."

There was a humming sound as the computer began to boot up.

"Shall we play a game?" Natasha smirked. "It's from a movie that's really-"

"I know, I saw it," Rogers said.

Green lights began to appear on the screen, forming what looked like a face in a gas mask.

"Rogers, Steven," the computer said in a thick German accent. "Born nineteen eighteen." The computer's antique camera panned around to Natasha. "Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna, born nineteen eighty four." It panned to William. "Rosemond, Marco, born nineteen ninety."

"Marco?" Rogers asked.

"Polo," William grunted in annoyance.

"Shubert, Marianne, born nineteen ninety," the computer identified Olivia.

Olivia scowled at it and Rogers and Natasha both refrained from commenting.

"It's some kind of recording," Natasha said to try to disperse the two assassin's foul moods.

"I am not a recording, Fraeulein," the computer said. "I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in nineteen forty five, but I am."

The screen to the right suddenly displayed a picture of a balding man in his fifties with large, round glasses.

"You know this thing?" Natasha asked Rogers.

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for Red Skull," Rogers said, walking around behind the computer. "He's been dead for years."

"First correction, I am Swiss," the computer said.

"You're about to be," Olivia said, drawing her P99s, only for Natasha to catch her hand.

"Second, look around you," the computer continued. "I have never been more alive. In nineteen seventy two, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however, that was worth saving, on two hundred thousand feet of databanks. You are standing in my brain."

"Then let me give you a lobotomy," Olivia said.

"Not yet," Rogers said. "We need to know why we're here, first. How did you get here?"

"Invited," the computer said.

"It was Operation Paperclip," Natasha said. "After World War Two, SHIELD recruited German scientists with...strategic value."

"Strategic value like covertly turning SHIELD into the new HYDRA?" William asked.

"Oh, very good," the computer said. "This one is much smarter than the files SHIELD has on him would suggest. That is right. SHIELD has become the new HYDRA."

"HYDRA died with the Red Skull," Rogers said.

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place," the computer said as the face was replaced by a symbol consisting of a skull with six curled tentacles reaching out of the bottom of it inside of a circle.

The symbol was replaced by the face again, which then split into two.

"Prove it," Rogers growled.

"Accessing archive," the computer said as images began to flash across the screens, stopping as it showed the former leader of HYDRA, backed by HYDRA's army. "HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom." The video began to show the HYDRA army bearing their Tesseract-powered weapons standing in a massive sea of a formation. The video switched to the Allied forces dismounting on a beach. "What we did not realize was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist." The video began to show battles, including Rogers himself fighting. "The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly." The images continued to shift between various scenes of destruction and war. "After the war, SHIELD was founded, and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD." As the computer continued to speak, images of the founding of shield, Zola working with them, and then more videos of military and other chaos. "For seventy years, HYDRA had been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war, and when history did not cooperate, history was changed."

"That's impossible, SHIELD would have stopped you," Natasha said.

"Accidents will happen," the computer said as the screen displayed a picture of a newspaper reporting the death of Howard Stark and his wife Maria, then photos from the crime scene, then images of Fury with the word "DECEASED" stamped across it. Then, it was back to destruction. "HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise." The screen showed an image of the underside of some kind of plane, but with dozens of guns lining its underside. "We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your life." It flashed several newspaper and magazines, all of them showing Rogers. "A zero sum."

Rogers punched the screen, cratering it and turning it off, but doing little else.

"Lobotomy time?" William asked.

"As I was saying," the computer said, the face appearing on another monitor.

"What's on this drive?" Rogers demanded.

"Project Insight requires insight," the computer said. "So I wrote an algorithm."

"What kind of algorithm?" Natasha asked quickly. "What does it do?"

"The answer to your question is fascinating," the computer said. "Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it."

Blast doors began to close over the elevator. Rogers hurled his shield at it, but was too late, and it bounced off, ricocheting around the room for a moment before returning to him. Olivia turned, duplicating herself before each began to fire with their laser snipers, targeting the computer systems. The computer shrieked in pain as he was rapidly killed, but William was certain there wasn't time to finish him completely.

"Guys, we've got a bogey!" Natasha said. "Short-range ballistic. Thirty seconds, tops."

"Who fired it?" Rogers asked.

"SHIELD," Natasha said.

"I admit, I have been stalling, Captain," the computer said, even as the screaming continued, Natasha grabbing the flash drive. "Admit it, it is better this way. We are, both of us, out of time."

Rogers ripped a grate out of the floor and grabbed Natasha before jumping in. As he did, William grabbed both Olivias, who fused back together and fired one more shot into the computer itself, then used a blast of energy to smash through the grate beside the one Natasha and Rogers were in. Then, the missile hit. William shrieked in agony and effort as he forced his as much energy as he could manage into a kite shield above them, using it to shield himself and Olivia the same way Rogers was himself and Natasha. The only difference was that anything that touched William's shield was incinerated. The ash began to pile up around them quickly, as the bunker collapsed. Finally, it was over. William sighed in relief as he let his shield fade, only for his entire body to go cold and numb, dropping him into the ash.

"William!" Olivia called out to him, shaking him by his shirt, since she couldn't touch him directly. "Wake up, William! Marco! Marco Rosemond!"

"Pick him up," Rogers said hoarsely. "We need to go!"

"He's too hot!" Olivia said.

Rogers walked over quickly with Natasha and felt William's skin, hissing in pain. "Tae Natasha. I'll carry him."

Olivia nodded, splitting into three, who all picked Natasha up by having one for each arm and one between her legs. As she did, Rogers dragged William onto his shield, then tied him on with William's sweatshirt going from one arm strap to the other around his chest, then used his own sweatshirt to make a handle for him to drag the shield. Then, he and Olivia fled seconds before the SHIELD tac team arrived, several Quinjets flying overhead with search lights.

* * *

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	17. Chapter 17

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

* * *

Winter Soldier

"So, what's wrong with him?" Sam Wilson asked as he helped Olivia lay William on a spare bed.

William hadn't woken since the explosion the day before. They had gone to Sam's house because Rogers thought Sam would take them in, despite only having met the man twice, one of them while running laps the day of the Lemurian Star mission.

"His powers are killing him," Olivia said. "I don't know if he'll wake up. I hope he does, but..."

"But you're afraid he'll die," Sam said.

"No," Olivia said, glaring at Sam. "I _want_ him to die. But I want to be the one to do it. I want him to wake up, because I don't want him to cheat me out of killing him by dying from his own powers."

"Oh...uh...alright then," Sam said. "So...you two aren't...ya know...together?"

"I'd rather die," Olivia spat, though her glare faded slightly. "He's an arrogant prick, and has proven a million times over how much he hates me." Her glare returned full-force. "Dammit! It's not fucking fair!"

"What's not?" Sam asked.

"Why did the best kiss I've ever had have to be with an asshole like him!?" Olivia demanded, more to herself than anyone else.

"You kissed?" Sam asked. "I thought you said you're not together."

"We're not," Olivia said. "It was to throw the person we were trying not to get caught by off. It didn't mean anything."

"Except that it definitely did, because you liked it," Sam said.

"I'll give you ten seconds to leave before I start shooting," Olivia growled.

"I appreciate that," Sam said, leaving the room quickly. After a while, Olivia stood, walking toward the main bathroom to re-wet the cloth she was trying to use to get William's temperature down, only to stop just outside of the door to the room Natasha and Rogers were in.

"If it was down to me to save your life, now you be honest with me, would you trust me to do it?" Natasha asked.

"I would now," Rogers said as Olivia peeked inside. "And I'm always hon-"

Natasha cut him off with a kiss, and after a moment of surprise, Rogers began to return it. Olivia smiled, in spite of herself. William would be happy the mind games he'd been playing with Natasha to try and trick her into getting with Rogers had worked. She glanced back and saw Sam walking over, motioning for him to be quiet. Sam walked over and leaned on the doorframe, smirking, as Olivia left for the bathroom, hearing Sam clear his throat after a second.

"I made breakfast," Sam said. "If you two...ya know...eat that sort of thing."

Olivia ran cool water over the cloth before returning to William, finding Natasha sitting beside him, feeling his forehead.

"He's still burning up," Natasha said, moving out of Olivia's way and allowing her to put the cloth on his forehead. "Go get breakfast. I'll take care of him for a bit."

"No," Olivia said. "The asshole saved my, so I owe him. I'll be the one to take care of him. Then we'll be even again, and I can kill him without worrying about needing to square a debt first."

Natasha smiled. "Can't argue with that, I suppose. We won't be far if you need anything."

"After you eat, bring me in three plastic bags of ice," Olivia said.

Natasha nodded and walked away, Olivia sitting in the chair beside the bed, as she had been earlier. After a little while, Natasha returned with ice and Olivia put one bag under each arm, then one between his thighs.

"Careful you don't send him into shock," Natasha said.

"I know what I'm doing," Olivia said curtly. "This isn't the first time one of us has had to nurse the other back to health."

"That's right," Natasha nodded. "I almost forgot. He's saved you before, right? From Bullseye?"

"That wasn't about me," Olivia said. "He just knew that I was the only one who had any chance of killing Bullseye. But I fucked that up."

"Regardless of what he told you, I don't think it was entirely because he wanted you to kill Bullseye. I think at least part of him protected you just for the sake of protecting you."

"Yeah, and I'm secretly the Hulk's daughter," Olivia said. "He wouldn't protect me just to protect me. He's too much of an asshole, and he hates me."

"He doesn't," Natasha said.

"What do you mean?" Olivia frowned.

Natasha sighed. "Listen, we need you for the next part of what we have to do. We're going after Sitwell. We could use you at a distance."

"I can't leave without risking William dying," Olivia said.

"Well, now I know I'm dying," William croaked. "I just woke up and I'm already hallucinating that Olivia's worried about me."

"Don't flatter yourself," Olivia spat. "I just don't want you to die while I owe you one."

William nodded, pushing himself up. "That sounds more like the cunt I remember. So, you said we're going after Sitwell?"

"You're not," Natasha said. "You need rest."

"I'll manage," William said. "I just won't be using my powers again."

"Fuck it," Olivia said. "If he's got a death wish, let him come. I've done my part. We're even."

Natasha sighed and nodded. About an hour later, William was sitting against a wall, holding a back of ice against his neck with his left hand as his right held Olivia's FN 5.7, Olivia beside him, sighted in through a window at Sitwell while William covered her.

"Call," Olivia said.

"Got it," Sam said, dialing his phone, the hack Natasha had done on it making the caller ID on Sitwell's read as Alexander Pierce.

"Yes, sir?" Pierce asked.

"Agent Sitwell, how was lunch?" Sam asked. "I hear the crab cakes here are delicious."

"Who is this?" Sitwell asked.

"The good-looking guy in the sunglasses, your ten o'clock," Sam said, Sitwell looking around. "Your other ten o'clock."

Sitwell turned.

"There you go," Sam said, raising his iced tea in greeting.

"What do you want?" Sitwell asked.

"You're going to go around the corner to your right," Sam said. "There's a grey car two spaces down. You and I are gonna take a ride."

"And why would I do that?" Sitwell asked smugly, just as Olivia turned on her sniper rifle's laser, holding it steady on his chest.

"Because that tie looks really expensive, and I'd hate to mess it up," Sam said, Sitwell looking down at his chest.

Sitwell's eyes widened before he looked around worriedly. "Fine, I'll do it."

"Good choice," Sam said. "Walk."

Sitwell turned and began to walk quickly, Sam following. As they did, Olivia slung her sniper rifle across her back again and she and William hurried out of the building and to the roof of one a block away, reaching the roof just as Sam parked in front of it, having made sure Sitwell was lost before arriving. A couple minutes later, Rogers hurled him out through the door, sending him rolling across the roof to William, who dragged him up by the shirt and shoved him back toward Rogers, only for Rogers to catch him by the jacket lifting him as he walked toward the edge of the building.

"Tell us about Zola's algorithm," Rogers said.

"Never heard of it," Sitwell said as Rogers stopped, holding him at the very edge of the building. "Is this little display supposed to insinuate that you're going to throw me off the edge of the building, Rogers? Because that's not your style."

"You're right," Rogers said, releasing him and smoothing out his jacket and shirt. "It's hers."

He stepped out of the way and Natasha push kicked him, sending him screaming off the roof.

"So did you really refuse everyone I suggested just because you were hoping I might ask you myself?" Natasha asked.

"No," Rogers said. "I figured anyone you suggested was a SHIELD operative who was potentially going to be assigned to spy on me."

"So what does that make me?" Natasha asked.

"The only one I don't mind spying on me," Rogers said, just as Sam flew up over the edge of the building using a jetpack with a set of metal wings, dropping a still-screaming Sitwell in front of William.

"Our turn to ask," William said, pressing the muzzle of the FN 5.7 into Sitwell's groin. "Tell us about Zola's Algorithm, or else things are going to get messy."

"And the next time we ask, it'll be accompanied by a bullet, but we won't tell you which spot," Olivia said, holing a P99 to his head, her other hand using her second P99 to pin one of his hands to the roof, William's foot holding the other down.

All three of their pistols were suppressed and loaded with subsonic rounds.

"Zola's algorithm is a program...for choosing...Insight's targets!" Sitwell panted, struggling to catch his breath from the fall.

"What targets?" Rogers demanded.

"You, a TV anchor in Cairo, the Under Secretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA!" Sitwell listed quickly. "Now...or in the future."

"The future?" Rogers asked. "How could it know?"

Sitwell laughed. "How could it not!? The twenty first century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it."

Olivia squeezed the trigger of the gun pressed against his hand, Sitwell shrieking in agony. "Don't get high and mighty. How does it read people?"

"Your bank records!" Sitwell almost cried, tears of pain leaking from his eyes. "Medical histories, voting patterns, emails, phone calls, even your SAT scores! Zola's algorithm evaluates people's past to predict their future!"

"And what then?" Rogers asked.

"Oh my God, Pierce is gonna kill me," Sitwell said, only to scream again as Olivia shot his uninjured hand, William moving his foot out off the way, then moving it back after the shot, pressing his foot on the wound to increase the pain.

"You should be more worried about what we're going to do to you," William said. "Captain America may not be one to torture, but Olivia and I have considerably looser morals, especially when someone crosses our employer, like HYDRA did Fury."

"Olivia's the one that shot him!" Sitwell spat.

"And once HYDRA's been dealt with, she and I will be dealing with that next," William said. "But for now..." he shot out one of Sitwell's knees, "keep talking. What happens after the algorithm identifies someone who is or will be a threat?"

"The Insight helicarriers scratch people off the list!" Sitwell sobbed. "A few million at a time!"

"There, was that so hard?" William asked. "Olivia, if you would."

Olivia fired a bullet through his brain, and the other three with them all shouted in surprise.

"What the hell was that!?" Rogers demanded.

"He was dead anyway," Olivia said. "The Winter Soldier will be coming after him. We can take the body with us as bait to draw the ghost out, then kill him."

"_Minor pain compliance_!" Rogers seethed. "That was what we agreed!"

"Why were we letting them torture him anyway!?" Sam demanded.

"You couldn't have stopped us," William said. "Relax. Your hands are all clean."

"Then why do I feel like I need to shower?" Sam demanded.

"William's personality has that effect," Olivia said, putting her P99s away and setting her hand on the FN 5.7 to duplicate a round in order to replace the one William had fired. "Sam, fly Sitwell's body down to the car."

"I am _not_ riding around with a corpse that just pissed and shit itself!" Sam snapped.

"Everyone does that when they die," Olivia said.

"Duck!" William shouted, grabbing Olivia and diving to the ground, Rogers tackling both Sam and Natasha.

Just as they did, a rocket flew over them, blasting the top of the stairwell leading back into the building. As they all scrambled to their feet and Rogers grabbed his shield, the Winter Solider landed at a sprint on the rooftop opposite them. Olivia began to spray at him instantly and he swerved to the side, his metal arm blocking several shots as he continued to close in. William stepped up beside Olivia and fired at his knee, only for him to have leapt into the air, avoiding it and getting over Olivia's pullets as well. As he fell, Rogers jumped, slamming the edge of his shield into his side, hurling him sideways. As he rolled, William and Olivia both began to fire at him rapidly, but he again reacted fast enough to avoid the bullets. This time, he grabbed a Desert Eagle and began to fire back, targeting Olivia. William spun, stepping in front of her and emptying his pistol at the Winter Soldier, even as bullets slammed into his torso one after another. Finally, William collapsed just as Olivia began to spray bullets from her G36. The Winter Soldier flipped over a low wall instantly, all of them hearing his metal arm tearing down the side for several seconds before glass shattered.

"He went inside!" Rogers said, sprinting for the ruined stairs.

"I'll target him from outside!" Sam said, taking off.

"How's William?" Natasha asked.

"THAT FUCKING HURT!" William shouted, sitting up and allowing eight deformed bullets to fall to the ground around him. "At least I know the armor really is bullet proof."

"Here, I'll refill your pistol," Olivia said, reaching for it.

"Take it," William said, passing it to her. "He's wearing armor of his own, so you'll need it more than me."

"You can't use your powers!" Olivia snapped.

"I don't need to," William said, taking her laser sniper instead. "This one doesn't need to have you present to have infinite ammo."

Olivia blinked before smirking and nodding. "Let's go!"

The three of them sprinted for the stairs, following the sounds of Sam shooting and Rogers shouting in effort. After a couple seconds, they reached the floor the others were fighting the Winter Soldier on just in time for him to throw Rogers, keeping the shield. Olivia fired several shots from her FN 5.7, only for him to block it with the shield, as well as a shot from the rifle William had borrowed. Then, the Winter Soldier hurled the shield, bouncing it off of both of them before catching it again and spinning, smashing Rogers away with it, into Natasha. He turned, blocking a barrage of shots from Sam's submachine guns, deflecting the bullets into the room around them, one of them grazing the side of William's leg as he was standing, dropping him back to that knee. The Winter Soldier hurled the shield out the window into Sam's head, knocking him into a daze and sending him plummeting toward the ground, the shield smashing back into the building through a window several stories below.

"Just die!" Olivia shouted, spraying a P99 at him with her left hand, only for his metal arm and his vest to block the bullets long enough for him to reach her.

He used his metal arm to strip the P99 from her, then kicked her backward into William, knocking his shot off and knocking both to the ground. He reached back for a submachine gun strapped the the back of his left shoulder, but just as he fired, Natasha kicked his arm upward, sending his shots into the ceiling before swinging her left hand at him, the bracelet around her wrist glowing with electricity. He spun around it and caught her by the hair with his normal right hand, then pulled her into the way of Rogers' punch. Natasha grunted in pain and the Winter Soldier kicked her into Rogers, making him stagger backward before the Winter Soldier moved to punch Natasha in the spine with his metal arm, meaning to break her back. Before he could, William kicked the arm out to the side, slashing at him with an energy dagger, and the Winter Soldier only barely avoided it, the dagger slashing his mask instead. He ripped the super-heated mask off of his face and flung it into William's face instead, then caught several knife duplicates Olivia had thrown, hurling them into William's abdomen instead.

William shouted in pain as they all hit hard enough to bruise him through his armor, despite none of them getting through, just as Rogers fired the laser rifle William had dropped when Olivia had been thrown into him. The Winter Soldier ducked under it and turned to Rogers, who froze instantly.

"Bucky?" Rogers breathed.

"Who the hell is Bucky?" the Winter Soldier asked.

He drew a knife, but as he moved to use it, Natasha hurled a small metal disk onto his metal arm, electricity flying across it instantly, shutting it down. Olivia shot forward instantly, slashing at the Winter Soldier, who stepped backward, allowing Olivia's knife to knock the small disk off his arm before slashing back, splitting her side open. She shouted in pain and he stepped forward, only for Rogers to pass Olivia, blocking his forearm. Suddenly, the two were fighting in a near blur, both trading punches rapidly, all the while Rogers was blocking the Winter Soldier's attempts to stab or slash him. Just then, the door into the room off to William's right burst open, several SHIELD operatives stepping into it, only for Sam to suddenly reappear in the window, spraying them with one hand while the other threw Rogers' shield to William. He caught it and raised it just in time to deflect several shots away from himself, then tossed it to Natasha as Olivia began to spray the SHIELD operatives with her remaining P99, slaughtering them.

Then, Natasha slammed the shield into the Winter Soldier's metal arm and deflected a slash away from Rogers before passing Rogers the shield as she kicked the Winter Soldier backward. However, as he turned, he raised an M1911, firing at Natasha and hitting her in the left shoulder. He fired a second shot, but Rogers managed to block it with his shield, reflecting it into the Winter Soldier's chest. His armor stopped it, but the force knocked him out the window. He grabbed Sam's foot, dragging him downward before swinging back toward the building, smashing in through another window and bringing Sam with him before hurling him into a wall. Then, he sprinted out of the room. Sam sprinted after him, the others all heading for the stairwell and chasing them down, but when they reached the street, they all skidded to a stop, finding a small army of SHIELD troops waiting and a news camera flying overhead.

"Not here," Rumlow said to the team. "We can't execute them on the news."

"Stand down, Olivia," William said as he saw her reaching for her P99s. "You shoot, we die."

Olivia growled in irritation, but nodded. A few minutes later, they were all in the back of a SHIELD prisoner transport with thick metal shackles binding their hands, shackles which reached from their wrists to their elbows, and kept their forearms stacked on top of each other, their hands by their opposite elbows. William let out a pained breath, leaning his head back against the side of the truck as his adrenaline wore off and the pain of having used his powers for even a second began to register.

"You'd better take good care of that rifle," Olivia said, glaring at Jack Rollins, the next in the STRIKE team's chain of command after Rumlow, who was holding Olivia's laser sniper.

Rollins ignored her, so she glared at him for a moment before turning her attention to William, who was grimacing but silent, the pain slowly beginning to fade.

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	18. Chapter 18

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

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Sacrifice and Revenge

William sighed heavily as he stared at the Triskelion. They were under orders from Fury, who Hill had brought them to after helping them escape the troop transport, to infiltrate the three helicarriers in order to replace one of their targeting chips with one Fury had had developed. Before they had left, Williams had asked Fury in private if a helicarrier being blown up instead of hacked would still work. Fury had said it would, but William had refused to tell him why he was asking.

"Everyone remember their jobs?" Rogers asked, wearing the uniform that had been in the Captain America exhibit in the museum.

"I take one carrier, Sam and Olivia take another, and you take the third," William said. "Natasha secures the council and apprehends Pierce, then dumps all of SHIELD and HYDRA's secrets onto the internet."

"Good," Rogers nodded. "You sure you'll be okay without your powers?"

"I'll be fine," William said, lifting the bow Fury had given him, a spare that Barton usually left at SHIELD in case he lost his or it was damaged, as well as the two full quivers he had with him. "They may not be energy arrows, but I _am_ an archer normally."

"He'll be fine," Natasha smirked. "He makes a passable stand-in for Clint."

"Alright, let's go," Rogers said.

They all headed to the Triskelion, making it to a control room without incident where Rogers used the PA system to announce to the entire building that SHIELD had been infiltrated by HYDRA, the STRIKE team and the Insight crew specifically. Once he had, they all split up, heading for their respective tasks together. Within minutes, things got complicated. The Insight Crew was a small army, and it wasn't easy getting through them. Rogers had the most obvious success, using his shield to block bullets and take down anyone he met quickly, using borrowed grenades to take down groups of Insight troops at a time. As he did, Sam was struggling to land on his helicarrier, having already dropped Olivia off on it, but having to avoid the helicarrier's AA-guns himself.

"Hey Cap, I think I found those bad guys you were talking about!" Sam said.

"You alright?" Rogers asked, tossing a grenade into a group of soldiers.

"I'm not dead yet," Sam said.

"That's a start," William said, sending an arrow into one soldier, the arrowhead exploding a moment later and killing two more. "Someone remind me to tell Barton his arrows suck. None of the explosions are big enough."

"You'll have to tell him yourself," Olivia said over the sound of endless gunfire on her end. "Oh shit!"

"What?" William asked, rolling under a burst from an Insight troop before sending a pointed arrow into his head.

"Someone shot my AUG!" Olivia complained before the gunfire started again as she switched to what William assumed was her G36.

"At least it wasn't the laser gun," William said, firing an arrow at a group of soldiers, only for the arrow to explode, sending shrapnel into them and killing them all.

"Alright Cap, I'm in," Sam finally reported, only to take off again as a Quinjet began to pursue him.

William finally got under his own helicarrier and sent a grappling arrow up onto the side, the cable attached to the bow, which included an auto-winch. As soon as it stuck, William reeled himself up, clambering over the side before detaching the cable from the arrow and spinning, firing three explosive arrows into the Insight troops running toward him, killing them all. He paused to drop the first quiver, which had run out of arrows a couple minutes ago, and felt the other. Ten left.

"I'm running low on arrows," William said. "Hopefully there aren't too many g-oh shit!"

He dove to the side as a toothpick flashed past him, grazing his cheek and splitting it open.

"Not bad," Bullseye said. "I didn't think you'd dodge that one." As he spoke, he flicked a card into the air, the card cutting off the head of an arrow William fired at him, sending it off course and past Bullseye, where it exploded and killed a pair of Insight soldiers. "Not using your powers? You're underestimating me, aren't you?"

"No, I'm not," William said, tossing the bow and quiver both aside. "Olivia, Bullseye's here."

"Fuck!" Olivia swore. "I'll grab a Quinjet and-"

"No," William said, forming himself a bow and arrow, aiming at Bullseye, who was grinning as he shuffled a deck of cards, minus one, in his hands over and over. "You won't make it in time, and he'd just make it crash anyway. Focus on your helicarrier. I'll worry about this one."

"Don't use your powers!" Olivia snapped.

"I don't have a choice," William said, then loosed the arrow, instantly sprinting to the side and firing several more.

The first three hit a card each and exploded, but the fourth passed through empty air. William swore, flipping into the air just in time for a card to streak under him, only for a breeze to catch it and make it spin like a saw blade, arcing back around and slicing his side open, armor and all. He shouted in pain, crashing to the ground, only to form an energy sword in his right hand, slashing a card in half, making the two halves split his ears in half, rather than impaling his face. He shrieked in pain, pulling the sword back with his bow as it shifted into an arrow and he fired it at Bullseye. Bullseye leaned out of the way and flung a card, but William formed a shield, in addition to his bow, the card being reduced to ash. Then, William fired several arrows as he charged. Bullseye cartwheeled out of the way one-handed, only for an arrow to explode against the ground in front of him as he stopped, launching him away and scattering the rest of the cards, all of them partially burned and ruined. Bullseye stood, pulling several small metal darts out of one of the two belts across his chest, both of them lined with hundreds of darts, and hurled them. William jumped, allowing them to stab into his abdomen, then slashed at Bullseye as he landed. Bullseye ducked out of the way, getting behind William, then leapt backward as energy spikes erupted from William's back, narrowly missing him.

Smoke began to curl off of William as he ducked into a crouch and spun, a dart splitting his scalp open from the front right to the back left. William swore and swung his left arm, the bow becoming a massive saw blade that raced through the air at Bullseye, only for Bullseye to slide under it. William snapped his fingers, however, and the energy blade exploded, blasting a hole through several floors and hurling Bullseye down through it. William dropped in after him, sending an exploding arrow into the floor as he did, then used a string arrow to slow his descent as he fell all the way into the glass dome on the underside where he was supposed to replace the targeting blade. as he swung down toward the walkway, he heard a faint whistle and yanked on the energy rope, being yanked back upward in time for a half-dozen metal darts to stab into his back, one of them scratching his spine. He shouted in pain and fell, crashing down hard on the glass and rolling to the bottom, Bullseye landing on the walkway just as William's powers heating his body caused his clothes to erupted into flames. William shrieked in agony, tearing them off and hurling them aside, then fell limp, breathing hard as agony flowed through him.

"Olivia," William croaked.

"William!" Olivia said, clearly worried. "Hang on! I'm almost to my helicarrier's targeting blades! Once mine's done, I'll be right over to help you!"

"Too...late," William croaked, Bullseye hurling a dart, which stabbed into William's ankle, William too weak to make any more sound than a loud groan. "I used...too much. I'm...going to...go."

"No!" Olivia snapped. "You can't! You're not allowed to die until I kill you, dammit!"

"Sorry," William said. "I was...always an...asshole to you. I never really...wanted to...hurt you. I wish...I had...told you before. Maybe things...could have been..." He stopped to shout weakly in pain as Bullseye hurled six darts into his legs, one per shin, kneecap, and thigh.

"William, don't you dare die!" Olivia said.

"I wish...I'd told you," William said, feeling his powers about to overload. "I-"

Olivia spun three steps into the glass dome as the Helicarrier William had been on was consumed by a white explosion of energy that erupted into a sphere. The concussion sent both of the other Helicarriers spinning away for several hundred meters and blasted a huge section of the city, causing parts of the Triskelion below the helicarriers to collapse.

"Natasha!" Rogers shouted.

"I'm fine," Natasha grunted. "That wasn't the part I was in. Was that explosion William?"

"Yes," Olivia said. "He's gone."

"Finish the job," Rogers said. "We have to do what we came to do."

"I'm at the targeting blades," Olivia said as she pulled one out and replaced it with the one Fury had given them. "Bravo, locked."

"You and Sam Head to the Triskelion to evacuate anyone in the collapsed section," Rogers said.

"Understood," Olivia said, dropping a grenade to blast a hole in the dome below her. Sam, can I get a lift?"

"On the way," Sam said. "I have company, though."

"I'll handle it once you catch me," Olivia said, dropping out through the hole.

Sam shouted in surprise and dove after her, barely managing to catch her. As soon as he had, she began to fire back into the Quinjet chasing them, making a rotor explode within seconds. As the Quinjet fell out of the sky, Sam flew them both down to the part of the building that still remained.

"How's it coming on your end, Rogers?" Hill asked.

"Bucky's here," Rogers replied. "It's going to be a minute."

Sam and Olivia began to help anyone they could in the collapsed building, listening for Rogers to announce that he'd replaced his targeting blade. Hill notified him when there were six minutes left, and he shouted an acknowledgement over gunfire. At the one minute mark, his response was "Stand by," but he sounded out of breath and pained. Then it was thirty seconds and Maria warned the carriers had begun acquiring targets.

"They're about to fire!" Maria warned.

"Charlie lock," Rogers finally gasped out.

"Okay, Cap, get out of there!" Hill said.

"Fire now," Rogers said weakly.

"But Steve-"

"Do it!" Rogers snapped. "Do it now! And Olivia, tell Natasha I...Tell her I'm sorry."

Then, the carriers opened fire, beginning to rip each other apart in seconds. After a minute, they began to crash in the water beside the Triskelion, multiple pieces crashing down in the ruins of the city where William's explosion had destroyed it.

"Hill, where's Steve?" Natasha asked, finally finished with her part and able to use her earpiece. "Have you got a location?"

"He was...He was on the Helicarrier," Hill said.

"W..." Natasha inhaled sharply before going silent, and Olivia swallowed hard, knowing she was crying.

"He wanted me to tell you that he's sorry," Olivia said.

Natasha didn't answer, so Olivia returned her attention to trying to help people. After a few minutes, however, Natasha began to shout, Olivia just managing to make out "Steve" before Natasha stopped broadcasting. Sam took off instantly, and Olivia looked around at the water, and the debris filling it, in silence for a few seconds before swallowing hard and returning to work.

* * *

Olivia glanced at the others as they stood gathered around Fury's grave. Rogers had been alive when Natasha found him, but had to recover in the hospital a couple weeks. During that time, Natasha left his side only to use the bathroom, and the one time she had been called before a committee in order to answer questions about what had happened. Now, they were getting ready to say goodbye to Fury, who she was pretty sure was about to go into hiding somewhere. Except for Natasha, who hadn't gotten back from her hearing yet.

Olivia returned her gaze to the grave she was standing in front of. Marco Rosemond. She glared at the grave, hands curling into fists in her jackets pockets, curling the material tight around her fingers.

"Are you happy now?" Olivia said quietly to herself. "You cheated me out of the kill I most wanted, and then you went and apologized right before doing it. What the hell am I supposed to do with that, asshole? What am I supposed to do now that you're..." She stopped herself and wiped the tears from her cheeks, struggling to maintain her glare.

"Don't be to hard on him," Natasha said, stepping up beside him. "He loved you. He just didn't want to admit it because he thought you hated him."

"I _do_ hate him!" Olivia snapped.

Natasha simply nodded, staring at the grave for a moment before sighing. "I should thank you, William. Your little mind game tricked me into realizing how I felt about Steve. You manipulative bastard. Thank you." She turned and walked over to the others as Fury told Rogers to direct anyone asking for him to the grave. "You should be honored, that's the closest he comes to saying thank you."

"Not going with him?" Rogers asked.

Natasha smiled sadly. "No. I'm...I blew all my covers. So...I have to go figure out a new one."

Rogers nodded, dropping his gaze to the ground.

"I don't suppose you have any suggestions?" Natasha asked, leaning forward slightly so he could see her hopeful smile.

"You could try being you," Rogers suggested.

Natasha smiled. "I don't know who that is."

"That's alright," Rogers smiled, wrapping his arms around her. "Make something up."

Natasha smiled as well before reaching up and kissing him. Sam instantly rolled his eyes and turned, walking after Fury.

"So, first we finish my stuff, then we sit on a beach somewhere with you looking hideous in a bikini and figure out your new cover," Rogers said.

Natasha laughed and nodded. "Alright. Sounds like a deal." She glanced over at Olivia just as Olivia walked over to them. "What will you do now?"

Olivia was silent for a few seconds before responding. "I'm going to slaughter every single person who's a member of Hydra, then I'm going to kill the remaining members of my former organization. Then we'll see."

Rogers sighed, shaking his head. "You know, we might be able to use an extra set of hands with my stuff. I wouldn't be able to pay you much, but at least you'd have busy work that's not mass murder."

Olivia shook her head. "I'm doing this for me. I need this. So no thank you."

Rogers nodded. "Will we be able to get ahold of you if we need you?"

Olivia nodded. "Black Widow can find anybody."

"That's usually with SHIELD's help," Natasha said. "But yes, I'll be able to find her if we need her."

Rogers nodded, and he and Natasha thanked her for her help. Then, she walked away, leaving the cemetery to the pickup truck she'd stolen and had her guns in, including a new AUG.

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	19. Chapter 19

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

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Broken

Olivia took a long swig from the bottle before setting it back down on the bar heavily, staring at the bar. She hated liquor. She really did. She'd never understand how William was ever able to enjoy drinking it. Her eyes narrowed as he crossed her mind again. She hated thinking about him. Every time she did, her chest ached and he'd get stuck in her mind for the rest of the night. Just like now. Try as she might to force him out, his memory was as annoyingly stubborn as he had been. She could remember his voice perfectly. She could remember every fight they'd had, every time he'd used her past trauma to hurt her. She could remember him apologizing for it. His words from just before he died echoed through her mind over and over again like a broken record, the cold feeling in her chest growing with each repetition. Finally, she closed her eyes, taking another drink as she tried to will him away. Instead, she was suddenly standing on that damned escalator again, his arms wrapped around her, the smell of his cologne blanketing her in a warm, comfortable feeling, his lips moving against hers so tenderly that she'd almost forgotten that it was only supposed to be to get them past Rumlow. And then Natasha was speaking and breaking the spell his presence had placed her under and she was wishing she could shoot Natasha, only to remember how much she was supposed to hate William.

She sniffed and was suddenly aware that she was crying. She wiped her eyes furiously and took a long drink from her bottle. She hated William. How dare he die before she could be the one to kill him? And how dare he make her forget that she hated him and leave her in such a sorry state that she cried every time she thought about him? How dare he be kind and caring about her for the first time only when he was about to die? Except, it wasn't the first time, was it?

She could still remember the first time, the real first time, too. It had been when he and their master found her. When she'd been cradling her sister's body. They'd both been naked still from what she'd been forced to do, and while their master had been slaughtering everyone that had a part of her torment, William had tried to help her. He'd given her his jacket and had gotten her pants for her. He'd gotten a blanket to cover her sister. He'd held her while she cried and tried to tell her that everything was going to be okay now. And how had she repaid his kindness? She'd hit him. She'd screamed at him and told him to leave her alone. And then when they took her in, she'd treated him like it was his fault. She'd been terrible to him. And yet, if Natasha was right, he'd still loved her.

She set the empty bottle down and grit her teeth, as tears rolled down her cheeks. She was on the escalator again, losing herself in his kiss and wishing that the escalator had been longer. She opened her eyes, drying her cheeks and forcing the memories out of her head. She needed to stop. She needed him to leave her alone. Just once. For the first time since they'd met, she needed him to leave her alone, even if she begged him not to.

"Hey there, sexy," a man wearing jeans, a flannel shirt, cowboy boots, and bearing a full beard said, walking over to her. "Let me buy you a drink. See if I can cheer you up. A girl as fine as you shouldn't be crying alone at the bar."

Olivia narrowed her eyes, only to growl in annoyance as the escalator flashed through her mind again. She pushed herself up and grabbed him by the front of the shirt, dragging him out of the bar and toward her motel room across the road. She had to get him out of her head. She needed to forget. To do that, she'd try anything.

* * *

Olivia groaned as she stirred, head throbbing and yet already filling with memories of him. It hadn't worked. Not even while she was trying.

"So, who's William?" the man she'd used with hopes of forgetting asked as he stepped out of the bathroom, buttoning his shirt.

"No one," Olivia said venomously.

"Do you usually say no one's name during sex?" the man asked.

Olivia glared at him.

"Alright, fair enough," the man said. "Not like it matters anyway. You're hot enough to say whatever name you want during sex."

"Just get out!" Olivia snapped.

The man chuckled. "Make sure you take care of everything. I don't want to find out five years down the road that I've got some kid to a random slut in some bar."

Olivia snatched up the P99 she kept under her pillow. "Get the fuck out!"

The man went pale and streaked from the room in an instant, slamming the door closed behind him. However, the damage had been done. All of the guilt she'd tried to pretend she hadn't felt the night before crashed down on her like a tsunami and she broke, hugging her knees to her chest and burying her face in her arms as she sobbed.

After nearly a half hour, she finally got up and got herself cleaned up, then got dressed, collected her pistols and left the motel, stopping at a pharmacy for a morning after pill then a gas station for a bottle of liquor before leaving to find her next target.

* * *

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	20. Chapter 20

I do not own Avengers or any of the characters.

* * *

Raid

Olivia narrowed her eyes as she stared at the computer screen. After months of obliterating HYDRA bases, based off of intel from either Fury or the last base she scratched off the map, she'd finally found something worth her time. Having five Olivias rain never-ending rockets onto a base from a heavy rocket launcher, usually a SMAW, while Olivia herself went into the base for intel, was all well and good, but this base was a fortress on a mountain with more troops than four of those she'd destroyed so far, and was also deleted from the databank of every base she'd attacked except this one. She marked the coordinates on her map and walked back outside, then out of the fortress, past all of the now dead troops. Then, once she was safely away from the blast zone, her duplicates began the final volley, firing close to fifty rockets into the base before stopping, leaving nothing but a completely leveled ruin behind. Then, the duplicates all began to head down to meet her at the car.

Olivia pulled out her phone and dialed. "I need you. I found the last HYDRA base, but it's too big to handle alone."

"Just tell me where to meet you," Tony said.

"Sokovia," Olivia said. "I'll text you the exact coordinates. And Tony, bring the rest of the kids for a play date. We'll need them."

"Will do," Tony said.

Olivia hung up and got in the car, driving away from the base, heading for the storage container where she kept her rocket launchers, then the motel she was staying in. As soon as she was there, she locked the door and dropped onto the bed, pulling out the bottle stashed between the bed and the wall, taking several gulps before lowering it. She stared at the bottle in silence for a long while as William invaded her thoughts once again before hurling the at the wall and dropping onto the bed on her back, tears falling silently from her eyes. Several hours later, she heard the unmistakable sound of a Quinjet landing outside the motel and collected her guns, walking out to the others and ignoring Natasha and Rogers' concerned looks. She knew how she liked. Raw bloodshot eyes from crying every night, dark circles from lack of sleep, pale from the same, her hair was a mess, and she stunk of alcohol. But she didn't care. She didn't care what they thought, or how she looked. She had only one job. Slaughter HYDRA.

* * *

Olivia sprayed a HYDRA soldier as he flew past, then turned, shooting the gunner of the vehicle behind their stolen one. They'd been detected early, and now, they were fighting probably more than a hundred HYDRA troops, all armed with energy weapons and most with jetpacks. She was in the passenger seat of the vehicle, leaning out the window to shoot, Natasha was driving through the forest at fifty miles an hour, and Barton was standing in the gunner's seat with his bow. Besides them, Stark was flying around in his armor, Rogers was driving a motorcycle, Thor was flying around with his hammer, and Banner was destroying anything the Hulk could get his hands on. Olivia dropped back into her seat just ahead of an energy blast, then reached up and duplicated Barton's arrows for him.

"Okay, I have to ask," Natasha finally said, after not speaking more than necessary so far.

"Don't," Olivia growled. "I know what you're going to ask, and I'm fine."

"We both know that's bullshit, which is why I wasn't going to bother asking that," Natasha said. "Something other than just him being gone is bothering you. What is it?"

"Is now really the time, Nat?" Barton asked between explosions.

"Nothing happened!" Olivia snapped. "I didn't do anything!"

"I never said you did," Natasha said as they began to speed toward a barrier blocking the road. "What'd you do?"

"Nothing!" Olivia snapped as she climbed onto the window sill just before Natasha cut the wheel, turning the truck sideways and allowing the three of them to bail to the other side, crossing the barrier at the same time as everyone else. As they landed, everyone continued to attack, Olivia spraying into the army ahead of them endlessly. The three of them began to run forward as fast as they could, the others all taking off, Rogers still on his bike.

"What'd you do, Olivia?" Natasha asked again as they quickly worked their way through the troops, Olivia duplicating the other two's ammo as needed.

"I told you nothing!" Olivia snapped, kicking a grenade as it landed in front of her and sending five flying back the other way, all three of them taking cover from the explosion.

"Do you want to maybe die drowning in guilt?" Natasha asked.

"I didn't do anything!"

"Bullshit!" Natasha snapped. "You hate yourself, now tell me why!"

"I had sex!" Olivia shrieked, finally.

The Hulk grunted in surprise, stopping for a moment before being blasted and taking off again, Rogers coughed uncomfortably, Thor's head cocked off to the side in confusion, Barton sighed heavily, and Stark let out an curious "Oh?"

"I couldn't bear to keep thinking about him, so I thought maybe it would help me forget, but it just made everything worse," Olivia confessed.

"I see, Natasha said, setting her hand on Olivia's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I know it hurts now, but it _will_ get better."

"When?" Olivia scoffed. "When I'm dead too?"

"Hey guys," Barton said. "I know this is a really important conversation, but we've got incoming."

They turned to the troops closing in on them and Olivia growled in annoyance, beginning to spray with her G36 as a duplicate ran off to the side and began to spray her AUG at them.

"Shit!" Stark shouted suddenly as a loud, metallic "BONG!" echoed through the area.

"Language," Rogers said instantly. "Jarvis, what's the view from upstairs?"

"The central control building is protected by some kind of energy shield," Jarvis responded, watching from a satellite above them. "Strucker's technology is well beyond Olivia's description of any other HYDRA base."

"Loki's scepter must be here!" Thor said. "Strucker couldn't mount this defense without it. At long last."

Natasha sprinted around a mounted gun position and quickly killed everyone before Olivia swung the massive energy cannon around on first a truck driving by, then another gun position.

"At long last is lasting a little long, boys," Natasha said.

"Yeah," Barton agreed, firing an arrow into a tank. "I think we lost the element of surprise."

"What was your first clue?" Olivia asked, firing her laser sniper past him into a HYDRA soldier's face.

"Wait a second," Stark said. "No one else if gonna deal with the fact that Cap just said 'Language?'"

"I know," Rogers said, then paused to flip forward off his bike and hurl it i to the nose of a truck, destroying both vehicles. "Just slipped out."

They continued to fight for a few more minutes before reinforcements began to arrive. Olivia began to quickly pick off the dismounted troops while Thor and the Hulk began to take out the tanks. After a moment, however, as Barton fired an arrow at a bunker, something blue flashed past and the arrow was suddenly gone. Barton moved to fire another, only for something to crash into him, hurling him to the ground. as he began to push himself up, he stared at a boy in his teens who was walking past.

"You didn't see that coming?" He asked, then streaked away in the blink of an eye, Barton drawing an arrow back in less than a second, only to find himself alone.

Then, he shouted in pain as the tank began to shoot at him, grazing his side. Natasha sprinted over to help him instantly as Olivia began to pepper the bunker with shots from her laser sniper.

"We have enhanced in the field," Rogers warned.

"Clint's hit!" Natasha responded as the bunker began to rapidly fire at Olivia, forcing her into cover as well.

Olivia grit her teeth as energy blasts exploded all around her. She could hear soldiers closing in on her between explosions, but she couldn't do anything about it. Then, finally, help arrive. The Hulk exploded down amidst the soldiers, then charged the bunker, obliterating it. Olivia sighed in relief only for her eyes to widen as the same boy who'd caught Barton's arrow skidded to a stop in front of her.

"Hello," he smiled. "My name's Pietro. What's yours? Or should I just call you Angel?"

Olivia glared at him, her eyes flicking to the arrows he was still holding.

"Oh, don't worry," he said. "I won't hurt you."

"And that's where we differ," Olivia growled, raising her P99, only for him to be gone. "Fuck."

"Language, Olivia," Stark said to tease Rogers.

"Fuck off, Stark!" Olivia snapped, standing. "I'm not in the mood for your-" She shout in pain as a soldier slammed the butt of his rifle into the back of her head, knocking her out.

"Olivia?" Natasha asked, looking around. "Olivia, what happened?"

The soldier grinned as he hurled Olivia's earpiece aside, finishing tying Olivia's hands and wrists before beginning to drag her toward a still-functioning truck nearby.

"You're absolutely perfect," the soldier said in a thick German accent. "You're my ticket out of here, and once we escape the Avengers, you'll be my new favorite to-"

A mechanical right hand burst out of his chest, the fingers all extended like a blade, then was yanked back out, the organic left hand holding the soldier still by his shoulder shoving him to the side to keep him from landing on Olivia. Olivia groaned, a couple drops of blood landing on her forehead having woken her up, and forced her eyes open as she looked up at the blurry silhouette untying her wrists. Finally her vision sharpened, only to blur with tears.

"Are you alright?" William asked.

Olivia let out something between a sob of joy and a shriek of indignation, flinging her arms around him and kissing him desperately. He sighed in a mixture of relief and contentment, returning the kiss in equal measure, neither making any move to pull away until someone cleared their throat about a minute later. William turned to Barton and Natasha, Natasha instantly sprinting forward to hug him. As he stood, however, there was a soft mechanical whirring and Olivia frowned, staring at his legs, then his mechanical right arm.

"Your legs," Olivia said apprehensively.

William pulled back from Natasha and tugged the legs of his jeans up, exposing his prosthetics. All of his prosthetics were pitch black and shiny, designed with plates where there should be muscle groups, the feet designed like bare human feet, and they had white light shining from the seams.

"What happened to you?" Natasha asked. "We all thought you were dead."

"Who is it?" Rogers asked.

"It's William," Natasha told him.

"The explosion _was_ going to kill me, but at the last second, I tried to use my powers to vent it instead," William said. "I wasn't ready to die, so I vented it out through my arm as a beam. Or, at least, I tried. The attempt obliterated my arm, and I was too out of it to know what happened. All I know is that when I woke up, I was in a sort of very advanced hospital, and I was already healed. The burns I got during the fight were gone, most of the puncture wounds were gone, and I had these. Apparently, Bullseye fucked my legs up to bad for them to heal, so they made me new ones. And all three are powered by my ability."

"That place sounds like it couldn't possibly exist on Earth," Natasha said. "Stark could make the prosthetics, but not heal you like that. How long ago did you wake up?"

"Two days ago," William said. "They said I was finished with physical treatment after a few days. The rest of the time they were jut waiting for me to wake up."

Olivia wrapped her arms around him. "I'm sorry. Please don't leave me again."

"I won't," William promised.

"Someone needs to calm Banner down," Rogers said.

"I'll do it," Natasha volunteered. "I can usually do it without violence."

She walked away, Barton walking after her, and left William and Olivia alone. Olivia tucked her head under his chin, tightening her arms around him, and William responded in kind, holding her more securely.

"I love you," Olivia whimpered finally. "I love you."

"I love you, too," William smiled, eyes stinging. "I'm so sorry for how I acted all this time."

Olivia shook her head, pulling back to look up at him. "It was my fault. I gave you more than enough reason to hate me."

William smiled, kissing her. "I don't hold any of that against you, Olivia."

Tears began to fall from Olivia's eyes again and she curled herself into him once again. After a couple of minutes, Barton returned to collect them, all of them heading to the Quinjet together where Olivia sat in William's lap and remained there as they flew to pick up Rogers and Tony from the fort, Rogers having Strucker with him and Tony having Loki's scepter.

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